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THE  LIBRARY 

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A   TEXT-BOOK 

IN  THE 

HISTORY   OF   EDUCATION 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

VEW   YORK    •    BOSTON    •    CHICAGO    •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA    •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON    •    BOMBAY    •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
OF  CANADA,  LIMITED 

TORONTO 


A    TEXT-BOOK 


IN  THE 


HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 


BY 


PAUL   MONROE,   PH.D. 

PROFESSOR   IN   THE   HISTORY   OF   EDUCATION,   TEACHERS   COLLEGE 

COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY 

AUTHOR   OF   "SOURCE  BOOK   IN   THE    HISTORY   OF  EDUCATION   FOR  THE 

GREEK   AND    ROMAN   PERIOD,"   OF  "THOMAS   PLATTER  AND 

THE  EDUCATIONAL   RENAISSANCE  OF  THE 

SIXTEENTH   CENTURY,"   ETC. 


Nefo 
THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON :   MACMILLAN   &  CO.,  LTD. 
1935 


COPYRIGHT,  1905, 
BY  PAUL  MONROE. 


All  rights  reserved  —  no  part  of  this  book  may  be 
reproduced  in  any  form  without  permission  in  writ- 
ing from  the  publisher,  except  by  a  reviewer  who 
wishes  to  quote  brief  passages  in  connection  with  a 
review  written  for  inclusion  in  magazine  or  newspaper. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  September,  1905. 


•  PRINTED  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA  • 


Coll 


15 


TO 

MISS  GRACE  HOADLEY  DODGE 


PREFACE 

PROFESSEDLY  a  text-book,  this  volume,  while  not  pretend- 
ing to  be  an  exhaustive  history  of  the  subject,  aims  to  give 
more  than  a  superficial  outline  containing  a  summary  of  trite 
generalizations.  The  merits  which  the  author  has  sought  to 
incorporate  are  (i)  to  furnish  a  body  of  historical  facts  suffi- 
cient to  give  the  student  concrete  material  from  which  to 
form  generalizations ;  (2)  to  suggest,  chiefly  by  classification 
of  this  material,  interpretations  such  as  will  not  consist  merely 
in  unsupported  generalizations ;  (3)  to  give,  to  some  degree, 
a  flavor  of  the  original  sources  of  information ;  (4)  to  make 
evident  the  relation  between  educational  development  and 
other  aspects  of  the  history  of  civilization ;  (5)  to  deal  with 
educational  tendencies  rather  than  with  men ;  (6)  to  show 
the  connection  between  educational  theory  and  actual  school 
work  in  its  historical  development ;  (7)  to  suggest  relations 
with  present  educational  work. 

Containing  as  it  does  three  or  four  times  the  material  incor- 
porated in  the  text-books  now  in  use  in  American  schools, 
the  extent  of  the  work  is  justified  in  the  opinion  of  the  author 
by  the  greater  interest  to  be  aroused  in  the  student  by  con- 
crete material  bearing  upon  school  life  and  connecting  it  with 
more  or  less  familiar  historical  situations,  and  by  the  broader 
basis  which  it  will  furnish  the  instructor  for  his  work.  This 
more  extended  treatment  will  require  but  little  more  effort 
upon  the  part  of  the  student,  while  at  the  same  time  it  will 
give  him  far  greater  insight  into  the  meaning  of  educational 

rii 


viii  Preface 

theories  and  practices  and  their  relation  to  the  social  life  of 
the  times. 

It  is  the  belief  of  the  author  that  the  need  of  the  student 
is  to  grasp  great  movements  as  they  manifest  themselves  in 
thought  and  practice,  and  that  a  text-book  which  emphasizes 
these  movements  is  more  helpful  than  one  which  aims  to  give 
all  the  facts  and  which,  in  so  doing,  presents  a  multitude  of 
men  with  diverse  ideas  and  a  multiplicity  of  phenomena  with 
little  basis  of  organization.  Hence,  to  carry  out  his  purpose, 
the  author  has  selected  only  such  men  and  such  facts  as 
have  to  do  with  typical  movements,  and  which  consequently 
influence  present  thought  and  life.  Many  men  are  slighted 
who  in  themselves  are  prominent  enough,  but  who  contribute 
little  to  a  dominant  movement  or  add  but  little  to  the  ideas 
already  presented.  In  giving  the  ideal  of  Roman  education, 
the  analysis  of  the  training  of  the  orator  by  Tacitus  or  Cicero, 
though  quite  as  important  as  that  of  Quintilian,  would  have 
added  little  to  the  present  discussion.  So,  too,  there  could 
have  been  added  Protagoras,  Seneca,  a  multitude  of  writers 
in  the  later  Middle  Ages,  of  the  Renaissance,  and  of  each 
modern  period ;  but  they  are  omitted  in  the  fixed  belief  that 
more  is  to  be  gained  through  very  definite  conceptions  con- 
cerning a  comparatively  few  leaders  than  through  a  mass  of 
more  or  less  unrelated  detail  concerning  great  numbers  of 
those  who  from  the  particular  point  of  view  of  the  text  are 
comparatively  unimportant.  In  a  similar  way,  through  lack 
of  space,  many  interesting  illustrative  quotations  are  abbre- 
viated or  eliminated  altogether.  It  is,  however,  the  design 
of  the  author  later  to  supplement  this  text  with  a  series  of 
source  books  illustrating  the  development  of  educational 
thought  and  practices.  The  first  of  these,  that  for  the  Greek 
and  Roman  period,  has  already  been  published. 

The  needs  of  the  student  of  the  history  of  education  are 
to  acquire  a  sufficient  body  of  fact  concerning  the  educational 


Preface  ix 

practices  of  the  past ;  to  develop  an  ability  to  interpret  that 
experience  in  order  to  guide  his  own  practice;  to  exercise 
his  judgment  in  estimating  the  relation  existing  between 
various  theories  and  corresponding  practices ;  and,  above  all, 
to  obtain  a  conception  of  the  meaning,  nature,  process,  and 
purpose  of  education  that  will  lift  him  above  the  narrow 
prejudices,  the  restricted  outlook,  the  foibles,  and  the  petty 
trials  of  the  average  schoolroom,  and  afford  him  the  funda- 
mentals of  an  everlasting  faith  as  broad  as  human  nature 
and  as  deep  as  the  life  of  the  race. 

Under  each  general  topic  treated  enough  material  is  given 
to  elucidate  the  main  characteristic.  For  the  same  purpose 
the  contributions  of  two  or  three  of  the  most  representative 
men  are  discussed.  The  restrictions  of  space  and  the  work- 
ing conception  adopted  by  the  author  forbid  further  elabora- 
tion of  material,  especially  that  of  a  biographical  character. 
Consequently  the  text  at  almost  every  point  aims  to  be  sug- 
gestive rather  than  exhaustively  conclusive.  This  fact  will 
be  evident  to  all  in  the  treatment  of  those  topics  that  come 
within  the  limits  of  recent  experience.  To  the  student  famil- 
iar with  the  historical  field  this  is  no  less  evident  in  the  earlier 
than  in  the  later  chapters. 

It  is  not  intended  that  answers  to  the  lists  of  questions 
appended  to  each  chapter  should  be  worked  up  from  this 
text.  They  are  suggestive  of  further  work,  of  an  intensive 
character,  which  may  be  done  by  the  student  with  time  and 
material  at  his  disposal.  Should  the  text  itself  furnish  all 
the  material  that  can  well  be  used  in  the  time  allotment  at 
the  disposal  of  the  class,  these  questions  may  be  entirely 
disregarded. 

So,  too,  the  reference  lists,  which  are  limited  wholly  to  the 
educational  literature  in  English  and  that  of  the  most  access- 
ible and  helpful,  are  merely  suggestive.  For  an  exhaustive 
bibliography  the  student  is  referred  to  Professor  Cubberley's 


x  Preface 

excellent  Syllabus  of  the  History  of  Education,  or  for  further 
suggestion  not  so  elaborate  to  the  pamphlet  Syllabus  prepared 
by  the  author  to  accompany  this  book. 

For  helpful  criticisms  on  the  manuscript  I  desire  to  express 
my  obligation  to  Mr.  Theodore  C.  Mitchill  and  to  my  col- 
league, Professor  John  A.  MacVannel.  I  am  indebted  to 
Miss  Izora  Scott  for  the  index. 

PAUL  MONROE. 
NEW  YORK, 
August,  1905. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

PRIMITIVE  EDUCATION.     EDUCATION  AS  NON-PROGRESSIVE 
ADJUSTMENT 

PAGB 

SIGNIFICANCE  OF  PRIMITIVE  EDUCATION         ....  i 
DOMINANT  CHARACTERISTICS   OF  PRIMITIVE  LIFE— ANI- 
MISM   2 

NATURE  OF  EDUCATION  AMONG  PRIMITIVE  MAN  DETER- 
MINED BY  THIS  DOMINANT  SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTIC  3 
FORMATION  OF  MEANS  FOR  THE  ATTAINMENT  OF  EDUCA- 
TIONAL ENDS 6 

Practical  education 6 

Theoretical  education 7 

A  teaching  class          .........  8 

Subject-matter  for  study 9 

A  literary  basis          .........  IO 

METHOD  OF  PRIMITIVE  EDUCATION 10 

TRANSITION  TO  A  HIGHER  STAGE  OF  EDUCATIONAL  PRO- 
CESS    13 

CHAPTER  II 

ORIENTAL  EDUCATION.      EDUCATION  AS  RECAPITULATION: 
CHINA  AS  A  TYPE 

CONCEPTION  OF  EDUCATION  HELD  BY  THE  CHINESE    .        .  17 

Relation  between  social  life  and  education i  j 

Confucianism  the  basis  of  education 19 

Selections  from  Confucian  text 20 

The  family,  the  basal  institution 23 

DURATION,  EXTENT,  AND  MODIFICATION  OF  THE  CHINESE 

EDUCATION 24 

CONTENT,  METHOD,  AND  ORGANIZATION  OF  CHINESE  EDU- 
CATION    26 

si 


xii  Table  of  Contents 

Content  

Character  of  the  language 

The  literature 

Stages  of  schooling 

Content  of  elementary  schools      ....... 

The  art  of  writing , 

Content  of  higher  education  ....... 

The  school  system 

The  examination  system 

Method  of  Chinese  education 

Results  of  Chinese  education 

CHINESE  EDUCATION  AS  A  TYPE  OF  ORIENTAL  EDUCATION 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  GREEKS:    EDUCATION  AS  PROGRESSIVE  ADJUSTMENT 
THE  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION       ....  52 

Political  development  of  personality 53 

Moral  development  of  personality 53 

Intellectual  development  of  personality 55 

^Esthetic  development  of  personality 57 

Meaning  of  Greek  education 58 

Limitations  of  the  Greek  ideal  and  of  Greek  practices  ...  59 

Greek  education  as  a  development 61 

PERIODS  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION 61 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  HOMERIC  PERIOD       ....  62 

The  twofold  ideal 63 

Ideal  of  man  of  action        ........  63 

Ideal  of  man  of  wisdom      ........  65 

Social  and  individual  elements  in  these  ideal*      ....  66 

OLD  GREEK  EDUCATION 67 

Duties  of  a  Greek  citizen 68 

Worth  or  virtue  as  the  aim  of  education 68 

Spartan  education 70 

Influence  of  material  and  social  environment  on  character  of 

Sfartan  education       ........  70 

Aim  of  Spartan  education 72 

Organization  of  Spartan  education     .         .         .         .         .         .  73 

Content  of  Spartan  education      .         .  ....  75 

Moral  training          ...  ....  77 


Table  of  Contents  xiii 

PAGB 

Athenian  education  during  the  Old  Greek  Period  79 

The  organization  of  Athenian  education     .....         80 

School  life 83 

Public  education  of  the  Ephebes  .         ......         85 

Plato's  description  of  the  Athenian  schoolboy's  life         ...         86 
Content  of  Greek  education         .......         88 

Reading,  writing,  and  the  literary  element   ....         94 

Moral  purpose  of  Athenian  education 97 

Method  of  Greek  education          .....  .         98 

Results  of  old  Greek  education 100 

THE  NEW  GREEK  EDUCATION  ;  TRANSITIONAL  PERIOD       .       102 

Character  of  the  period 102 

Transitional  forces 103 

Political 103 

Social  and  economic  .........       104 

Literary 105 

Moral  and  religious  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .106 

Philosophical 108 

New  demands  upon  education 109 

The  sophists no 

Resulting  changes  in  education 115 

In  higher  education    . 115 

In  the  palcestra  and  music  school        .         .         .         .         .         .116 

Change  in  method 117 

Result  of  the  new  education 117 

THE  GREEK  EDUCATIONAL  THEORISTS 120 

The  problem  of  the  Greek  educational  theorists     .        .        .        .120 

Socrates 122 

Relation  to  the  sophists  and  to  the  old  Greek  educators  .         .         .122 

The  Socratic  method 1 25 

Nature  of  Dialectic 126 

Influence  on  method  and  content  of  education       .         .         .         .       127 

Plato 130 

Importance  as  an  educational  theorist         .         .         .         .         .130 

Similarity  of  Plato*  s  views  with  those  of  Socrates .         .         .         .130 

Concerning  the  aim  of  education          .         .         .         .         .130 

Concerning  educational  method  ......       132 

Advance  beyond  Socrates    ...  ....       133 

Educational  scheme  of  the  Republic,     .         ,         .         .         .         .134 

Education  of  children  and  youth         .         .        .         .  135 

Higher  education .         .136 

Educational  scheme  of  the  Laws 137 

Permanent  value  of  Plato's  educational  ideas       .  .        .       139 


xiv  Table  of  Contents 

I  Hi 

Practical  defects 143 

Practical  influence 144 

Aristotle 146 

Advance  beyond  Plato 147 

Formulation  of  the  ideal    .         . 148 

The  method  of  education 153 

The  scheme  of  education  in  the  Politics 154 

Practical  influence  of  Greek  education         .         .         -         .         .157 

THE  COSMOPOLITAN  PERIOD  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION     .        .  160 

General  characteristics 160 

Spread  of  Greek  culture 160 

Rhetorical  and  dialectic  schools 162 

The  philosophical  schools 164 

The  University  of  Athens 167 

The  University  of  Alexandria 169 

Fusion  with  Roman  education 172 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE   ROMANS:    EDUCATION  AS  PRACTICAL  TRAINING 

GENERAL  CHARACTER  OF  ROMAN  EDUCATION         .        .        .176 

Dominant  institutions  and  the  genius  of  the  people      .        .        .176 

Practical  character  of  Roman  genius .         .         .         .         .         .176 

Roman  standard  of  judgment     . 177 

Influence  of  religion  on  education .178 

Contributions  of  Rome  to  civilization 179 

Roman  ideals  of  education  shown  in  their  conception  of  rights 

and  duties 180 

Rights  and  duties  of  a  father 1 80 

Religious  and  economic  duties iSi 

Political  duties 182 

Elements  in  this  educational  ideal 183 

The  practical  education 185 

The  home  as  the  center  of  education    .         .         .         .         .          .185 

Biography  as  a  means         ,         .         .         .         .         .         .         .187 

Imitation  as  the  method      ........       189 

PERIODS  OF  ROMAN  EDUCATION 191 

Period  of  early  Roman  education 192 

Period  of  introduction  of  Greek  schools 193 

Third  or  imperial  period :  the  Hellenized  Roman  education  .        .      197 
Tlu  school  of  the  Littrator 197 


Table  of  Contents  xv 


PAGH 

The  school  of  the  Grammaticus 198 

The  school  of  the  Rhetor 201 

Libraries  and  universities          .......  203 

Support  of  schools  by  the  Empire 204 

Educational  -writers  during  the  imperial  period '.         ...  206 

Quintilian's  Institutes  of  Oratory  ......  207 

Fourth  period :  decline  of  Roman  education 208 

Decay  of  Roman  society      ........  209 

The  education  of  the  last  centuries  of  the  Empire         •        .  212 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  MIDDLE  AGES:    EDUCATION  AS  DISCIPLINE 

§  i.    EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION    .        .        .        .        .        .221 

CHRISTIANITY  IN  CONTACT  WITH  THE  WORLD  OF  THOUGHT  221 
Christian  vs.  Greek  solution  of  problem  of  the  individual  and 

society 222 

Points  of  conflict  between  Greek  and  Christian  thought        .        .  223 

Influence  of  Greek  thought  upon  Christianity        ....  223 

/   Influence  of  Roman  thought 224 

Limitations  of  Stoic  and  pagan  philosophies         ....  225 

Effects  of  Christianity  upon  thought  life 227 

CHRISTIANITY  IN  CONTACT  WITH  THE  WORLD  OF  ACTION  228 
CHRISTIANITY    IN    REACTION    AGAINST    THE    WORLD    OF 

ACTIVITY 230 

Early  Christian  life  a  schooling 230 

Catechumenal  schools 232 

Catechetical  schools 233 

Episcopal  and  cathedral  schools 234 

CHRISTIANITY    IN    REACTION    AGAINST    THE    WORLD    OF 

THOUGHT 235 

Attitude  of  Greek  Christian  fathers  toward  learning     .        .        .  238 

Attitude  of  Latin  fathers  toward  learning 240 

§2.   MONASTICISM:   EDUCATION  AS  MORAL  DISCIPLINE      .  243 
SCOPE  OF  MONASTICISM  AND  IMPORTANCE  OF  MONASTIC 

EDUCATION ...  243 

ORIGIN  OF  MONASTICISM 245 

IDEALS  OF  MONASTIC  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION  ....  248 

Asceticism  an  ideal  of  discipline 248 

Ideal  of  chastity 249 

Ideal  of  poverty 349 


xvi  Table  of  Content 

MM 

Ideal  of  obedience 250 

Social  significance  of  these  ideals 250 

THE  MONASTIC  RULES 251 

MONASTICISM  AND  LITERARY  EDUCATION       ....  253 

Study  in  monasteries 254 

Schools  in  monasteries 259 

Copying  of  manuscripts 262 

The  monasteries  as  depositories  of  literature  and  learning    .        .  264 

The  monks  as  literary  producers 265 

The  literary  heritage  of  monasticism.     The  seven  liberal  arts      .  267 

Afartianus  Capella    .........  268 

Boethius 269 

Cassiodorus         ..........  270 

Isidore 270 

Content  of  the  seven  liberal  arts .         .         .         .         .         .         .271 

REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING  UNDER  KARL  THE  GREAT         .        .  274 

Alcuin 277 

Rabanus  Maurus 278 

Joannes  Scotus  Erigena 278 

§  3. "MYSTICISM:  EDUCATION  AS  A  SPIRITUAL  DISCIPLINE  279 

NATURE  OF  MYSTICISM 279 

ORIGIN  OF  MYSTICISM 281 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  MYSTICS 282 

§4.  CHIVALRY:  EDUCATION  AS  A  SOCIAL  DISCIPLINE.      .  284 

ORIGIN  AND  NATURE  OF  CHIVALRY 284 

IDEALS  OF  CHIVALRY 286 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  SYSTEM  OF  CHIVALRY     ....  289 
§5.  SCHOLASTICISM:  EDUCATION  AS  AN  INTELLECTUAL 

DISCIPLINE 292 

NATURE  OF  SCHOLASTICISM 292 

PURPOSE  OF  SCHOLASTIC  DISCIPLINE 29* 

CONTENT  OF  SCHOLASTICISM 295 

THE  FORM  OF  SCHOLASTIC  KNOWLEDGE 298 

THE  METHOD  OF  SCHOLASTICISM 3°° 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  SCHOLASTICISM 302 

THE  GREAT  SCHOOLMEN 3°5 

CRITICISM  OF  SCHOLASTICISM 3°7 

MERITS  AND  DEMERITS  OF  SCHOLASTIC  EDUCATION  .      .  309 

§  6.  THE  UNIVERSITIES 3*3 

ORIGIN  OF  UNIVERSITIES 3*3 

THE  FOUNDING  OF  UNIVERSITIES 3l6 

STRUCTURE  AND  ORGANIZATION  OF  UNIVERSITIES      .         .  317 

Privileges  of  universities                ,                        ....  318 


Table  of  Contents  xvii 

PAGE 

The  nations 319 

The  faculties .  320 

Governing  body  and  other  officials 321 

DEGREES 321 

METHOD  AND  CONTENT  OF  STUDIES 324 

INFLUENCE  OF  EARLY  UNIVERSITIES 325 

,§  7.   EDUCATION  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES        .  328 
THE  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  RENAISSANCE     .         .         .         .328 

THE  FRIAR  OR  MENDICANT  ORDERS 330 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SARACEN  LEARNING         ....  332 

THE  WANDERING  SCHOLARS         .......  335 

NEW  TYPES  OF  SCHOOLS 337 

THE  NEW  LITERATURES 340 

TRANSITION    FROM    MEDIAEVAL    TO    MODERN   EDUCATION 

EXPRESSED  BY  DANTE 342 


CHAPTER   VI 
THE   RENAISSANCE:    HUMANISTIC  EDUCATION 

WHAT  THE  RENAISSANCE  WAS 351 

THE  RENAISSANCE  IN  ITALY 357 

Petrarch 359 

Co-laborers  of  Petrarch 360 

MODIFIED  CHARACTER  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE   IN    NORTH 

EUROPE 361 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  MEANING  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE    .        .  364 

Revival  of  the  idea  of  the  liberal  education 364 

Formulation  of  the  aim 365 

New  elements  in  education          .......  367 

The  narrow  humanistic  education 370 

Exclusion  of  elements  from  the  conception  of  education         .         .  371 

Ciceronianism  ..........  372 

Character  of  the  narrow  humanistic  education    ....  374 

SOME  RENAISSANCE  EDUCATORS 375 

Vittorino  da  Feltra 376 

Early  German  humanists        ....  ...  377 

Wimpfeling      ...  ....  .  377 

Erasmus 378 

English  humanists .        .  382 

Roger  Ascham    ....  382 


xviii  Table  of  Contents 

Can 

TYPES  OF  HUMANISTIC  SCHOOLS 385 

The  universities 386 

Schools  of  the  Italian  courts 388 

The  German  Fiirstenschulen 389 

Schools  of  the  Brethren  of  common  life 390 

The  gymnasien 390 

English  public  schools 393 

Colonial  grammar  schools 395 

Jesuit  schools 396 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    REFORMATION   AND    COUNTER-REFORMATION:    THE 
RELIGIOUS  CONCEPTION  OF  EDUCATION 

WHAT  THE  REFORMATION  WAS 401 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  PERIOD  ON  THE  SPIRIT  AND  CONCEP- 
TION OF  EDUCATION 403 

Formalism  in  the  results 405 

Humanistic  content 406 

Institutional  effects 407 

General  effects 408 

SOME  REFORMATION  EDUCATORS 408 

Martin  Luther 410 

Philip  Melanchthon 414 

TYPES  OF  RELIGIOUS  SCHOOLS 416 

The  universities ...  417 

Secondary  schools  under  Protestant  control 418 

The  teaching  congregations 420 

Schools  of  the  Jesuit  Order .         .  420 

Constitution  of  the  order 421 

Extent  of  influence      ........  422 

Organization 423 

Preparation  of  teachers 424 

Subject-matter 425 

Method  of  instruction  426 

Defects  and  decline 428 

The  Oratorians ...  429 

The  Port  Royal  schools 430 

Elementary  schools  in  Protestant  countries 433 

Germany  .......  ,  433 

Scotland •         .  436 


Table  of  Contents  xix 

PAGF 

Holland 436 

America    ...........  437 

Elementary  education  in  Roman  Catholic  countries       ,        ,        .  437 

The  Institute  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Christian  Schools  .         .         .  437 


CHAPTER   VIII 
REALISTIC   EDUCATION 

WHAT  IS  REALISM? 442 

HUMANISTIC  REALISM 443 

The  concept  of  education 443 

Representatives  of  humanistic  realism 445 

Erasmus  .         .         .........  445 

Rabelais              ..........  446 

Milton 448 

Effects  of  humanistic  realism  on  schools 451 

SOCIAL  REALISM       .                         451 

The  concept  of  education .  45 1 

Montaigne  as  a  representative 455 

Montaigne  not  a  humanist  .......  456 

Montaigne  not  a  humanistic  realist      .         .         .         .         .457 

Montaigne  not  a  sense  realist       .         .         .         .         .         -457 

Montaigne  not  a  naturalist 458 

Montaigne's  conception  of  education  ......  459 

SENSE  REALISM 461 

General  characteristics 461 

Some  representative  sense  realists 465 

Richard  Mulcaster 465 

Francis  Bacon  ........                  .  468 

Educational  influence  of  Bacon 471 

On  subject-matter        ........  472 

On  method 474 

Wolfgang  Ratke 478 

John  Amos  Comenius          ........  480 

Importance  of  Comenius      .......  480 

Purpose  of  education  according  to  Comenius        .         .         .  482 

Content  of  education 483 

Method 48? 

Text-books •  489 

The  organization  of  schools          .         .         .         .         .  49 2 

The  Great  Didactic 494 


xx  Table  of  Contents 

MM 

Effects  of  sense  realism  on  schools 496 

The  real-schools  in  Germany      ....                  «,         .  498 

The  academies  in  England         .......  498 

The  academies  in  America          .......  500 

The  universities 501 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  DISCIPLINARY  CONCEPTION  OF  EDUCATION:   JOHN  LOCKE 
AS   A    REPRESENTATIVE 

FACTORS  CONTRIBUTING  TO  FORMULATION  OF  THE  THEORY  505 

MEANING  OF  EDUCATION  AS  A  DISCIPLINE     ....  507 

JOHN  LOCKE  AS  A  REPRESENTATIVE 512 

Physical  education 514 

Moral  education      . 514 

Intellectual  education 518 

Locke  as  a  representative  of  realism 520 

Locke  as  a  representative  of  the  naturalistic  tendency         .        .  522 

THE  DISCIPLINARY  CONCEPTION  IN  THE  SCHOOLS         .        .  523 

In  the  English  public  schools 523 

In  the  English  universities 527 

In  Germany 527 

In  America 529 

CHAPTER   X 
THE  NATURALISTIC  TENDENCY  IN    EDUCATION:    ROUSSEAU 

RELATION  TO  PREVIOUS  MOVEMENTS  AND  TO  THE  TIMES  533 

THE  ILLUMINATION  OR  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT        ...  537 
THE     NATURALISTIC    PHASE    OF    EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY 

THOUGHT 542 

JEAN  JACQUES  ROUSSEAU 547 

DOCTRINE  OF  THE  NATURAL  STATE 550 

THE  "  EMILE  "  AND  EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NATURE     .  553 

Negative  education 557 

Interpretations  of  negative  education 558 

Education  from  one  to  five 560 

Education  from  five  to  twelve 561 

Education  from  twelve  to  fifteen 562 

Education  from  fifteen  to  twenty  .  .  563 

The  education  of  women 565 


Table  of  Contents  xxi 

PAGB 

SOME  PERMANENT  RESULTS  OF  ROUSSEAU'S  INFLUENCE  566 

Education  of  interest  vs.  education  of  effort 566 

Conception  of  education  as  a  process 569 

Simplification  of  the  educational  process 570 

The  child  the  positive  factor  in  education 571 

The  formulation  of  nineteenth-century  educational  development .  572 

EFFECT  UPON  SCHOOLS 575 

In  France 575 

In  England 576 

In  Germany 577 

Basedow    ...........  577 

The  Philanthropinists         .                   580 

Campe 583 

Salzmann 583 

CHAPTER  XI 
THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL  TENDENCY 

GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS 587 

PHILOSOPHICAL  ASPECTS  OF  THE  MOVEMENT        .        .        .594 

Kant  on  education 595 

Rosenkranz 596 

The  phrenological  movement 596 

THE  PESTALOZZIAN  MOVEMENT 597 

Character  and  significance  of  the  movement         ....  597 

His  life  and  works 601 

Influence  of  Pestalozzi  on  education 608 

As  to  purpose     .                   608 

The  new  meaning  of  education  .......  610 

On  means  and  method        ........  614 

Influence  on  the  general  spirit  of  the  schoolroom  ....  621 

THE  HERBARTIAN  MOVEMENT 622 

Its  relation  to  Pestalozzianism 622 

Life  and  works  of  Herbart      .                624 

Herbart's  psychology 625 

Conception  and  purpose  of  education 628 

Herbartian  means  and  method 632 

Correlation  of  studies 635 

General  method          .........  636 

THE  FROEBELIAN  MOVEMENT       ...                 ...  639 

Froebel's  life  and  work 642 

Character  of  his  writings        , 645 


xxii  Table  of  Contents 

FACE 

Law  of  unity  the  basis  of  education 646 

Development  as  the  process  of  education 650 

Self-activity  as  the  method  of  the  process 653 

Influence  of  Froebel  on  the  content  of  school  work        .       .        .  659 

Play 661 

Educational  value  of  hand-work 662 

Nature  study  in  the  schools          .......  664 

The  kindergarten .665 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  MOVEMENT  ON  THE 

SCHOOLS 667 

Pestalozzian  influence 667 

Herbartian  influence 670 

Froebelian  influence 671 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  SCIENTIFIC  TENDENCY 

GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS 677 

EDUCATION  FROM  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  OF  THE  NATURAL 

SCIENTISTS 678 

CULTURE   DEMANDED   BY  MODERN  LIFE          ....  679 
THEORY  OF  EDUCATION  FORMULATED  BY  THE  NATURAL 

SCIENTISTS 684 

Herbert  Spencer 685 

Thomas  H.  Huxley 689 

SCIENCE  IN  THE  CURRICULUM 692 

In  universities  and  colleges 692 

In  Europe 692 

In  the  United  States 693 

Science  in  the  secondary  schools 697 

In  Germany      ..........  697 

In  England       ..........  698 

In  America        ..........  699 

Science  in  the  elementary  schools 700 

In  Germany      ..........  7°° 

/;;  England       ..........  7°' 

In  the  United  States 701 

INFLUENCE  OF  SCIENCE  ON  EDUCATIONAL  METHOD     .  702 


Table  of  Contents  xxiii 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  SOCIOLOGICAL  TENDENCY 

PAGB 

GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS 706 

SOCIOLOGICAL    ASPECT    OF    THE    WORK    OF    PESTALOZZI, 

HERBART,  AND  FROEBEL 

SOCIOLOGICAL  ASPECT  OF  THE  SCIENTIFIC  MOVEMENT      . 
EDUCATIONAL  IDEAS  OF  STATESMEN  AND  PUBLICISTS      . 
EDUCATION  AS  A  PREPARATION  FOR  CITIZENSHIP 
PLACE  OF  EDUCATION  IN  SOCIOLOGICAL  THEORY  . 
PHILANTHROPIC-RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS  FOR  EDUCATION. 
The  Philanthropinism  and  the  Fellenberg  movement   . 
The  monitorial  systems  of  Lancaster  and  Bell       .... 

The  infant  school  movement 

Public  school  societies  in  the  United  States 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  MODERN  STATE  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCA- 
TION—POLITICO-ECONOMIC TENDENCY      ....       729 

Germany 730 

France 731 

England 733 

United  States 734 

Early  free  schools       .........       734 

The  Horace  Mann  movement 735 

State  systems  of  public  education          ......       736 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  PHASE  OF  THE  MOVEMENT         .        .        .739 


CHAPTER  XIV 
CONCLUSION:    THE  PRESENT  ECLECTIC  TENDENCY 

GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS 747 

FUSION  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL,  SCIENTIFIC,  AND  SOCIO- 
LOGICAL TENDENCIES 747 

CURRENT  TENDENCIES  IN  EDUCATION 749 

HARMONIZATION  OF  INTEREST  AND  EFFORT  .        .        .        .751 

THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION 753 

THE  CURRICULUM 756 

METHOD 757 

THE  PERMANENT  PROBLEM 758 

INDEX 761 


HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 


CHAPTER   I 

PRIMITIVE  EDUCATION.      EDUCATION   AS  NON- 
PROGRESSIVE  ADJUSTMENT 

SIGNIFICANCE  OF  PRIMITIVE  EDUCATION.  —  Primitive 
society  reveals  education  in  its  simplest  form  ;  yet  in  this  early 
stage  the  educational  process  possesses  all  the  essential  char- 
acteristics that  it  reveals  in  its  most  highly  developed  stage. 
Here,  where  life  lacks  the  complexity  of  all  more  highly  devel- 
oped forms  of  culture,  the  elements  entering  into  that  general 
conception  of  life  which  constitutes  the  goal  of  the  education 
of  the  individual  are  simple  in  nature  and  few  in  number.  The 
means  elaborated  for  assisting  or  compelling  the  individual 
to  conform  to  these  general  requirements,  which  are  the 
conditions  he  must  fulfill  in  order  to  live  with  his  fellows, 
are  for  the  most  part  brought  to  bear  upon  the  individual 
unconsciously.  When  such  means  are  consciously  applied, 
they  are  direct  in  their  influence  and  general  in  their  nature. 
No  system  of  schools  is  to  be  found.  No  body  of  knowledge 
or  subjects  of  study,  that  serve  indirectly  as  a  basis  for  con- 
duct of  life,  have  yet  been  organized.  The  method  employed 
throughout  is  simple,  unconscious  imitation.  Only  in  the  high- 
est stages  of  primitive  life,  where  it  passes  from  the  barbarian 
to  that  stage  of  culture  which  we  call  civilization,  does  the 
method  of  instruction  appear.  While  the  student  is  directly 
concerned  in  the  educational  processes  of  more  highly  devel- 
oped peoples,  wherein  these  factors  are  so  elaborated  that  the 
essential  features  of  either  purpose,  institutional  means,  or 

B  I 


2  History  of  Education 

social  or  psychological  method  are  difficult  to  discover  because 
of  this  very  complexity,  and  wherein  the  resulting  influences 
on  both  individual  and  society  are  thus  more  difficult  to  ana- 
lyze, a  brief  preliminary  survey  of  education  in  primitive 
society  will  be  of  value  because  of  this  simplicity. 

DOMINANT  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  PRIMITIVE  LIFE. 
ANIMISM.  —  But  in  order  to  comprehend  the  aim  or  purpose 
of  education  with  any  people  it  becomes  necessary  to  discover 
those  dominant  institutional  characteristics  and  cultural  ideas 
which  give  shape  or  purpose  to  the  educational  process. 

Primitive  peoples,  however  diverse  they  may  be  in  many 
respects,  possess  one  fundamental  bond  of  similarity.  It  is 
that  interpretation  of  their  environment  which  we  call  animism. 
Back  of  every  material  existence  or  phenomenal  reality  the 
savage  posits  an  immaterial  power,  a  spiritual  entity,  a 
"  double,"  which  controls  the  material  object,  explains  its 
being  and  its  resistance  to  the  will  of  man,  and  makes  it 
an  abode  of  a  consciousness  no  different  in  kind  from  the 
consciousness  which  he  himself  possesses.  Not  that  this 
belief  is  the  result  of  long  reflection,  but  rather  that  the 
primitive  man  has  not  become  fully  conscious  of  self  and 
does  not  differentiate  psychologically  between  his  own  exist- 
ence and  all  other  phenomenal  existence,  animate  or  inani- 
mate. In  his  dreams  he  experiences  with  all  the  vividness 
of  his  waking  hours  the  excitement  of  the  chase,  of  the 
military  expedition,  and  other  activities.  This  indicates  to 
him  that  his  spirit  or  double  has  been  in  other  places,  though 
his  comrades  convince  him  that  his  body  has  not  moved.  The 
trance,  swoon,  or  various  forms  of  insensibility,  to  which  his 
life  of  force  renders  him  especially  liable,  together  with  som- 
nambulism, demonstrate  further  that  the  double  may  leave  the 
body  to  return  at  will;  death  but  indicates  that  the  double  is  un- 
willing to  return  or  has  lost  its  way,  and  hence  taken  up  its  abode 
in  some  other  body  or  object.  Rare  cases  of  insanity,  idiocy,  or 


Primitive  Education  3 

epilepsy  furnish  still  further  evidence  that  the  body  and 
double  are  separable  entities,  since  in  these  cases  a  for- 
eign or  hostile  spirit  has  taken  possession  of  a  body  not  its 
own.  To  his  dog,  his  horse,  his  canoe,  his  weapons  of  war- 
fare and  chase,  he  attributes  a  similar  double.  For  does  he 
not  use  them  in  his  dreams  ?  Do  they  not  cast  a  shadow  as 
he  himself  does  ?  And  do  they  not  at  times  seemingly 
thwart  his  will  as  if  possessed  of  a  hostile  spirit  ?  Therefore 
at  death  his  horse  and  dog  are  killed ;  perhaps  his  canoe,  even 
his  wife,  is  burned,  or  his  weapons  and  household  utensils  are 
buried  with  the  body  in  order  that  their  doubles  may  serve  his 
double  as  of  yore.  To  his  spirit,  offerings  of  food  and  other 
necessities  of  this  life  are  made  until  the  time  when  the 
remembrance  of  him  is  lost  in  the  worship  of  the  multitude 
of  ancestral  spirits  that  throng  the  air  or  inhabit  the  sensible 
objects  that  form  the  universe  of  the  family  or  clan. 

Thus  the  primitive  man  explains  the  processes  of  the  world 
around  him ;  each  material  object,  whether  sensible  or  in- 
sensible from  our  point  of  view,  is  by  him  in  his  unreflective 
way  endowed  with  consciousness.  Through  its  double  each 
feels  and  thinks  and  has  the  power  of  volition,  as  he  himself 
has.  The  world  of  doubles  is  an  immaterial  counterpart  of  the 
world  of  material  objects.  Thus  do  ordinary  processes  of  life 
and  nature  find  their  explanation ;  extraordinary  happenings, 
in  a  similar  way,  but  indicate  the  interventions  of  such  spirits, 
friendly  if  the  occurrences  are  fraught  with  good  results, 
hostile  if  accompanied  by  evil  consequences. 

NATURE  OF  EDUCATION  OF  PRIMITIVE  MAN  DETER- 
MINED BY  THIS  DOMINANT  SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTIC. 

—  The  life  of  the  primitive  man  consists  in  acquiring  the 
means  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  wants  of  the  body  —  food, 
clothing,  and  shelter;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  in  placating,  con- 
trolling, or  avoiding  the  enmity  of  the  world  of  spirits  through 
forms  of  worship.  Since  every  sort  of  food,  every  tree  or  plant 


4  History  of  Education 

that  furnishes  materials  for  shelter  or  clothing,  every  weapon 
or  implement,  has  a  ghostly  double  that  must  be  controlled 
before  the  object  itself  can  yield  the  satisfaction  desired,  the 
simplest  needs  of  life  become  clothed  with  dreadful  import, 
and  the  satisfaction  of  these  needs  entails  an  elaborate  pro- 
cedure designed  not  only  to  secure  the  service  or  object 
desired,  but  also  to  placate  or  control  its  double.  While  in 
the  ordinary  incidents  of  life  the  spirits  are  placated  by  the 
particular  manner  in  which  the  desired  object  is  acquired  or 
used,  there  yet  remain  those  procedures  of  a  more  general 
sort  for  appeasing  the  spirit  world  preparatory  to  a  hunt,  an 
expedition,  a  harvest,  and  a  multitude  of  occasions  aside  from 
the  routine  of  life. 

The  education  of  the  primitive  man  consists,  then,  in  these 
two  processes.  The  first  is  the  training  necessary  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  practical  necessities  of  life.  This  training 
consists  not  alone  in  learning  how  to  accomplish  the  object, 
—  that  is,  to  hunt,  fish,  use  weapons,  prepare  skins,  and  se- 
cure shelter,  but,  as  well,  how  to  do  each  of  these  things 
in  that  definite  prescribed  way  which,  through  the  experience 
of  the  clan  or  family,  —  as  interpreted  by  the  shaman,  ex- 
orcist, medicine  man,  or  whatever  the  functionary  may  be 
called,  —  has  been  found  to  avoid  offending  the  doubles  that 
preside  over  these  material  things,  and  thus  to  accomplish  the 
results  desired.  The  second  is  the  training  in  the  elaborate 
procedures,  or  forms  of  worship,  through  which  it  is  neces- 
sary that  every  member  of  the  group  shall  go  in  his  endeavor 
to  placate  the  spirit  world,  or  to  cultivate  its  good  will.  Each 
process  consists  in  acquiring  a  definite  procedure  or  form  of 
action  appropriate  to  every  experience,  commonplace  or  ex- 
traordinary, in  the  life  of  the  individual  and  of  the  group.  The 
former  process  constitutes  his  practical  education  ;  the  latter, 
his  theoretical  education.  From  the  latter  comes  the  primi- 
tive explanation  of  things  ;  for  animism  is  for  the  primitive 
man  religion,  philosophy,  and  science  all  in  one.  In  truth, 


Primitive  Education  5 

it  is  from  these  germs  that  philosophy,  science,  and  the 
natural  religions  have  evolved. 

The  theoretical  education  of  the  primitive  man,  however 
much  it  may  differ  from  the  theoretical  education  of  civilized 
man,  is  the  same  in  kind  and  in  purpose.  Through  it  he 
endeavors  to  obtain  an  explanation  of  life,  a  conception  of 
reality,  an  understanding  of  Nature  and  her  processes,  and  of 
the  relation  of  the  material  to  the  immaterial  world.  As  the 
modern  scientist  attributes  to  matter  the  possession  of  cer- 
tain forces,  such  as  chemical  affinity,  molecular  attractions, 
electrical  currents,  and  expresses  them  by  symbols  in  order 
to  explain  their  actions  and  thus  control  them  for  his  own 
purposes,  so  the  primitive  man  attributes  to  all  material  forms 
the  possession  of  doubles,  as  an  explanation  of  their  relation 
to  him,  that  through  their  doubles  or  their  symbols  he  may 
control  them  for  his  own  use.  It  is  through  this  theoretical 
education  with  primitive  as  well  as  with  civilized  man  that 
the  practical  world  is  explained ;  and  it  is  only  through 
advance  in  the  theoretical  education  —  this  explanation  of 
things  —  that  progress  in  practical  education  is  rendered 
possible. 

This  being  the  nature  of  the  educational  process  in  primi- 
tive society,  the  aim  of  education —  if  an  aim  may  be  spoken 
of  where  the  process  is  wholly  unconscious  —  is  to  adjust  the 
individual  to  his  material  and  immaterial  environment  through 
established  or  fixed  ways  of  doing  things  in  regard  both  to 
work  and  to  worship.  It  is  the  group  way  of  doing  things 
that  is  forced  upon  primitive  man.  Neither  man  nor  the 
group  is  vividly  conscious  of  the  individual,  certainly  not  of 
his  rights  and  his  welfare  as  distinct  from  that  of  the  group. 
Hence,  dominated  as  it  is  on  every  hand  by  custom  and  tra- 
dition, the  education  of  the  primitive  man  is  so  prescribed 
in  its  minutest  detail  that  he  has  far  less  freedom  than  man 
usually  possesses  in  higher  stages  of  culture. 


6  History  of  Education 

FORMATION  OF  MEANS  FOR  ATTAINMENT  OF  EDU 
CATIONAL  ENDS.  —  Since  with  the  primitive  man  there  is 
little  consciousness  of  individuality,  and  since  the  aim  ot  edu- 
cation is  accomplished  when  the  individuality  completely 
disappears  in  the  customary,  prescribed  way  of  doing  things, 
there  is  little  necessity  for,  certainly  little  achievement  in,  the 
elaboration  of  a  machinery  of  education.  The  welfare  of  the 
group  without  consciousness  of  the  rights  of  the  individuals 
which  compose  it,  is  the  end ;  and  this  is  an  end  to  be  ac- 
complished through  the  most  general  social  institutions. 

Practical  Education.  —  The  fundamental  social  institution 
itself  —  the  family — is  in  the  earliest  stage  the  sole  educa- 
tional institution.  From  this  very  fact  it  must  ever  remain 
the  institution  where  the  process  of  education  must  begin, 
and  where  the  ultimate  responsibility  for  the  most  general 
phases  of  the  process  must  rest.  When  the  practical  pro- 
cesses of  obtaining  the  necessities  of  life  are  rendered  more 
definite  and  more  highly  developed  by  the  first  division  of 
labor,  the  process  of  training  in  these  procedures  is  also  more 
clearly  defined.  Such  training,  however  simple,  is  given  in 
particular  lines  by  the  more  specialized  portions  of  the  family 
or  clan  group.  The  primary  division  of  labor,  that  between 
man  and  woman,  necessitates  that  training  in  warfare  and  the 
chase  should  be  given  by  the  men ;  that  training  in  the 
preparation  of  food  and  clothing  and  the  securing  of  shelter 
should  be  given  by  the  women.  But  even  with  the  subse 
quent  stage,  when  special  ability  in  making  weapons,  in  tat- 
tooing, in  fishing,  in  weaving,  in  curing  hides,  etc.,  made  far 
more  definite  this  division  of  labor,  and  when  the  latter 
became  the  means  for  practical  education,  nevertheless  the 
process  remains  one  of  unconscious  imitation.  Later  in  the 
transition  from  primitive  life  to  the  lower  stages  of  civiliza- 
tion, as  these  specialized  callings  became  fixed  in  given 
families  and  it  became  desirable  to  transmit  the  specialized 
abilities  from  father  to  son,  a  further  step  in  the  evolution  of 


Primitive  Education  j 

the  educational  process  takes  place  in  the  formation  of  the 
caste  system.  Even  yet,  though  now  a  conscious  process, 
it  is  little  more  than  imitation.  Nor  can  the  caste  system  be 
considered  as  primarily  an  educational  system  in  the  narrower 
sense  of  the  word.  Caste  is  at  basis  a  form  of  social  organi- 
zation, the  function  of  which  is  comparable  to  that  of  the 
family  though  on  somewhat  more  general  lines.  Education 
on  the  practical  side  has  now  developed  a  definite  institu- 
tional organization,  though  of  a  most  general  character.  So 
far  as  the  individual  is  concerned,  however,  education  is  still 
non-progressive,  for  there  is  no  development  in  aim  or  con- 
ception of  education,  or  of  individual  life,  and  little  change 
in  method. 

Theoretical  Education.  —  On  the  side  of  theoretical  educa- 
tion, —  that  which  sought  to  explain  the  problems  and  diffi- 
culties of  practical  education  as  well  as  those  of  life  in 
general,  —  the  means  are  somewhat  more  definite  and  the 
development  more  rapid.  This  phase  of  education  has  to 
do  with  that  interpretation  of  the  environing  world  of  the 
savage  and  with  his  adjustment  to  that  world  of  spirits  which 
was  complementary  at  every  point  to  the  material  world. 
As  remotely  as  the  life  of  primitive  man  can  be  traced,  the 
knowledge  of  how  so  to  direct  conduct  that  the  demands  of 
the  spirit  world  would  be  met  is  found  to  be  in  the  hands  of 
a  specialized  class,  —  the  shamans,  wizards,  exorcists,  medi- 
cine men,  or  familiars  of  whatever  name.  The  direction  of 
the  conduct  of  the  tribe,  both  in  special  practical  affairs  and 
in  the  forms  of  worship,  constitutes  the  earliest  theoretical 
education  of  the  race.  At  this  stage  there  is  seldom  any 
attempt  at  explanation  of  these  procedures  ;  there  is  simply 
the  determination  of  the  act  to  be  performed,  and  the  method 
of  performing  it,  —  the  what  to  do  and  the  how  to  do  it. 

It  is  but  natural  that  the  friendly  spirits  should  be  in 
largest  number  those  of  departed  ancestors.  These  are  yet 
members  of  the  family  group,  inhabiting  some  object  or 


8  History  of  Education 

objects  associated  with  the  family  dwelling  place.  In  time 
this  is  the  family  altar.  Therefore,  when  the  conditions  of 
life  become  somewhat  less  harsh,  and  hence  the  friendly 
spirits  become  more  numerous,  religious  ceremony,  worship, 
incantation,  or  whatever  it  may  be  termed,  gradually  ceases 
to  be  so  closely  connected  with  the  clan  as  with  the  small 
family  group.  This  worship  then  devolves  upon  the  patri- 
archal father  —  the  head  of  the  family  group  —  composed  as 
that  group  is  of  many  aggregates  such  as  the  modern  family. 
The  father  then  becomes  the  one  who  trains  the  younger 
generation  in  the  formal  conduct  of  life,  —  in  the  proper 
way  of  doing  things.  This  constitutes  their  education. 
Though  the  shaman  or  interpreter  of  an  unfriendly  spirit 
world  yet  exists,  his  office  becomes  of  less  importance  ;  in 
fact,  it  becomes  of  import  only  on  special  occasions,  and  is 
similar  in  function  to  the  office  of  the  Hebrew  prophet  at  a 
higher  stage  of  social  development.  In  this  latter  stage,  since 
the  duties  of  the  patriarchal  father  have  multiplied  in  the 
form  of  military,  judicial,  and  political  responsibilities,  the 
priestly  functions  have  become  yet  further  specialized. 
With  the  formation  of  a  special  priesthood  we  find  the  first 
class  whose  office  is  distinctly  educational.  In  three  respects 
this  advance  in  educational  function  may  be  recognized. 
These  are  the  formation  of  a  teaching  class,  of  a  subject- 
matter  of  education,  and  of  language  and  literature  as  a 
basis. 

A  Teaching  Class.  —  Religious  teaching,  now  in  the  hands 
of  the  priests,  yet  relates,  as  did  that  of  the  earlier  stage, 
to  the  interpretation  of  the  relation  of  the  practical  processes 
of  this  life  to  the  spirit  world  —  now  definitely  recognized  as 
a  life  to  come.  This  interpretation  now  calls  for  the  inculca- 
tion of  a  body  of  doctrines  and  a  training  in  an  elaborate 
ceremonial  or  ritual.  The  doctrine  becomes  embodied  in 
a  system  of  general  truths  with  concrete  applications,  both 
of  which  require  instruction  or  at  least  training  of  the  multi- 


Primitive  Education  9 

tude  by  the  priests.  The  ceremonial  entails  the  training  of 
the  people  in  peculiar  methods  of  performing  ordinary  activi- 
ties of  life,  such  as  those  relating  to  selection  and  prepara- 
tion of  articles  of  food,  to  character  of  dress,  and  the  like,  as 
well  as  in  dancing,  singing,  the  making  of  sacrifices  and 
offerings.  These  are  familiar  to  us  through  the  Hebrew 
scriptures. 

Subject-matter  for  Study.  —  But  above  and  beyond  this 
educational  function  of  the  priesthood  is  another  one,  —  the 
special  interpretation  of  these  doctrines  to  the  prospective 
members  of  the  priesthood  themselves.  Here  has  grown 
up  in  many  instances  an  esoteric  doctrine  that  is  far  differ- 
ent from  that  imparted  to  the  multitude.  The  training  of 
the  multitude  yet  consists  in  indicating  the  "  What  to  do," 
and  the  "  How  to  do  it " ;  while  in  that  of  the  priesthood 
itself,  is  added  the  "  Why  it  should  be  done."  This  inquiry 
into  the  meaning  of  these  ceremonials  and  the  attempt  at  a 
further  interpretation  of  doctrines  beyond  that  given  to  the 
multitude,  gives  rise  to  the  first  real  processes  of  instruction 
and  the  first  distinct  educational  institutions.  Though  it  is 
yet  but  a  "school  for  priests,"  this  instruction  of  the  pro- 
spective priests  by  the  priesthood  constitutes  a  school  in 
the  modern  conception  of  the  term.  Among  the  ancient 
Egyptians  and  Chaldeans,  even  before  Abraham  was  called 
from  Ur,  these  schools  first  appeared.  In  other  words,  at 
the  very  dawn  of  history  these  people  are  found  to  have 
passed  from  the  stage  of  barbarism  to  that  of  the  earliest 
civilization. 

This  elaboration  of  an  esoteric  doctrine  further  gives  rise 
both  to  intellectual  development  and  intellectual  differentia- 
tion. Out  of  this  inquiry,  as  is  clearly  seen  among  the  early 
Egyptians,  grow  the  cosmologies,  the  early  philosophies, 
the  mathematical,  the  physical,  and  the  biological  sciences. 
Through  this  study  the  priesthood  advance  from  a  wholly 
animistic  or  spiritualistic  interpretation  to  one  partly  meta 


to  History  of  Education 

physical  and  even,  as  is  evidenced  in  the  anatomical  and 
hygienic  ideas  of  the  Egyptian  priesthood,  to  an  interpre- 
tation partly  scientific.  Some  of  this  occult  meaning  is  hidden 
in  the  formal  teaching  to  the  multitude,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
hygienic  values  of  the  ceremonial  of  both  Hebrew  and 
Egyptian. 

A  Literary  Basis.  — The  third  respect  in  which  the  advance 
in  educational  function  by  the  priesthood  at  this  stage  is  to 
be  seen  is  in  the  invention  of  a  written  language.  With  the 
elaboration  of  a  body  of  doctrine  and  ceremonial,  and  the 
philosophical,  cosmological,  and  scientific  interpretations,  it 
becomes  necessary  to  commit  them  to  permanent  form,  either 
through  the  invention  or  the  borrowing  of  a  written  language. 
An  elaborate  literature  quickly  results,  and  offers  the  basis  or 
means  of  a  formal  education.  In  addition  to  this  body  of 
orthodox  and  formal  interpretation  to  be  given  to  the  multi- 
tude, theoretical  education  has  become,  on  the  part  of  the 
priesthood  the  mastery  of  the  written  language  and  of  this 
literature  which  contains  for  them,  as  our  literature  does  for 
us,  the  culture  history  of  the  race.  This  culture  history  is 
the  sum  of  human  experience  in  testing  the  values  and  the 
meaning  of  life. 

METHOD  OF  PRIMITIVE  EDUCATION.  —  Little  remains 
to  be  added  in  regard  to  method.  On  the  practical  side,  as 
we  have  seen,  primitive  man  never,  save  in  sporadic  instances 
and  in  the  highest  stage,  rose  to  the  conscious  process  of 
instruction.  Even  the  training  given,  where  at  best  there  is 
no  attempt  at  explanation  or  interpretation  but  where  merely 
the  thing  to  do  and  the  process  of  doing  are  indicated,  is  for 
the  most  part  purely  unconscious  imitation.  The  child  learns 
how  to  shoot  with  bow  and  arrow,  how  to  dress  the  animal 
slain,  how  to  cook,  how  to  weave,  how  to  make  pottery, 
merely  by  observation  and  by  using  the  '  trial  and  success ' 
method.  Repeated  imitation  with  successively  fewer  failures 


Primitive  Education  II 

gives  to  the  primitive  child  about  all  he  acquires  in  the  way 
of  arts.  With  the  development  of  caste,  or  even  with  a  less 
highly  developed  division  of  labor,  this  process  of  imitation 
becomes  conscious ;  but  never  as  a  common  practice  does 
primitive  life  reveal  to  us  a  rationalized  process  of  instruc- 
tion. In  fact,  the  method,  both  social  and  individual,  is  often 
most  irrational.  This  fact  is  illustrated  in  the  development 
in  pottery  making.  Discovering  first,  through  the  accidental 
burning  of  a  willow  basket  from  around  the  clay  bowl  within 
which  liquids  were  kept,  that  the  clay  would  harden  and  be- 
come liquid  proof,  the  primitive  man  for  generations  con- 
tinued to  make  pottery  by  first  making  the  willow  basket, 
plastering  it  over  with  clay,  and  then  burning  out  the  wooden 
model.  By  accident  again  discovering  that  the  clay  could  be 
shaped  direct,  he  continued  for  generations  to  impress  the 
stamp  of  the  unwoven  willow  upon  the  clay,  that  it  might  be 
burned  in,  though  he  made  no  willow  model  or  form. 

Whereas  almost  every  other  ordinary  phase  of  life  is 
pictured  out  in  permanent  form,  drawings  or  carvings  of 
processes  of  instruction  are  wholly  wanting.  Of  similar  sig- 
nificance is  the  inability  of  barbarian  people  in  our  own  time 
to  give  such  illustration  or  explain  the  process  by  which  the 
young  are  given  the  knowledge  of  these  practical  procedures 
in  life. 

On  the  theoretical  side  the  same  method  of  blind  imitation 
prevails.  Only  when  there  is  evolved  a  definite  class  with 
priestly  function  necessitating  the  education  of  a  special  class 
in  the  lore  of  the  priesthood,  does  there  come  to  be  instruc- 
tion in  the  sense  of  the  attempt  to  discover  and  to  impart 
why  the  things  should  be  done  as  well  as  merely  to  indicate 
the  action  to  be  imitated  or  the  doctrine  or  belief  to  be 
accepted.  For  the  most  part  the  only  formal  instruction  of 
this  kind  is  that  given  by  the  shamans  or  medicine  men  to 
the  adolescent  youth,  who  are  taken  aside  for  some  days  pre- 
vious to  their  entrance  into  full  membership  in  the  tribe  tc 


12 


History  of  Education 


be  instructed  in  the  secrets  of  their  people.  Dwelling  undel 
the  obligation  of  secrecy,  —  even  in  many  cases  prohibited 
from  speaking  during  the  entire  period  though  it  may  be 
many  weeks  in  length,  —  the  youth  comes  into  possession  of 
the  wisdom  of  his  people  —  their  attempts  at  the  interpreta- 


THE  INITIATION  OF  THE  YOUTH  BY  THE  SHAMANS  OF  A  CENTRAL 
AUSTRALIAN  TRIBE. 

tion  of  this  life  through  its  relationship  to  the  world  of  spirits. 
Very  significant  is  the  term  "initiation"  given  by  anthropol- 
ogists to  these  ceremonies,  for  it  indicates  clearly  that  primi- 
tive education,  like  most  complex  modern  education,  is  but  the 
initiation  of  the  individual  into  the  ways  of  society  through  the 
acquisition  of  its  organized  cultural  possessions,  now  expanded 
into  many  subjects  requiring  years  for  its  acquisition.  The 


Primitive  Education  13 

illustration  given  —  a  rare  representation  of  one  of  these 
ceremonies  —  is  a  photograph  of  the  removal  of  this  prohi- 
bition of  speech  from  the  youth  of  a  Central  Australian  tribe 
after  a  period  of  instruction  by  the  shamans.  This  instruc- 
tion is  of  the  purely  imitative  character ;  for  the  youth  but 
accept  without  any  variation  or  any  questioning  the  traditions 
of  their  tribe  as  transmitted  by  the  only  teachers  they  have. 

Custom  —  either  in  action  or  in  interpretation  —  has  been 
fixed,  once  for  all,  by  the  shaman  or  soothsayer,  by  incanta- 
tion, divination,  consultation  of  oracle,  or  whatever  method 
may  be  accepted ;  and  once  determined,  the  duty  of  the  indi- 
vidual is  implicit  obedience  through  imitation. 

TRANSITION  TO  A  HIGHER  STAGE  OF  THE  EDUCA- 
TIONAL PROCESS.  —  Through  a  most  elaborate  inductive 
inquiry  covering  most  primitive  societies  (though  the  same 
truth  may  be  drawn  from  observation  of  modern  society),  Mr. 
Spencer  has  shown  that  "  the  least  developed  people  are  the 
most  averse  to  change."  The  primitive  man  lives  by  adjust- 
ment to  his  immediate  environment  through  direct  imitation  of 
the  acts  of  his  elders  or  direct  obedience  to  the  commands  of  the 
shaman  or  familiar,  who,  in  turn,  is  guided  as  far  as  possible 
by  the  same  principle.  The  world  of  the  primitive  man  is  all 
of  the  present,  for  he  possesses  little  or  no  consciousness 
either  of  past  or  future.  His  education  is  mere  adjustment 
to  environment.  Hence  as  his  environment  is  non-changing, 
his  education  is  non-progressive.  Having  no  idea  of  the 
future,  no  constructive  imagination,  the  immediate  desires 
control.  To  quote  Mr.  Spencer  again,  "  Pain  and  pleasure  to 
come,  no4"  ^eing  vividly  conceived,  give  no  adequate  spur  to 
action;  leaving  a  light-hearted  careless  absorption  in  the 
present."  As  his  ancestral  spirits  dwell  about  him,  he  has 
little  conception  of  a  future  life,  differentiated  from  this  life ; 
none  certainly  that  affects  his  conduct  and  requires  any  ad- 
justment to  its  demands  as  a  part  of  his  education. 

V S 


14  History  of  Education 

Having  no  records,  and  little  memory  save  for  details,  the 
savage  and  barbarian  can  have  little  conception  of  the  past ; 
as  Spencer  shows,  they  can  have  no  recognition  of  long  se- 
quences. Hence,  again,  in  their  life  and  their  education 
there  is  no  conscious  attempt  to  preserve  the  past,  no  adjust- 
ment of  life  to  an  environment  determined  wholly  by  the 
experiences  of  past  generations.  Close  adherence  to  custom 
and  tradition  there  is,  but  it  is  the  result  of  unreflective  imita- 
tion. As  has  been  seen,  the  only  things  that  concern  the 
primitive  man  are  his  immediate  daily  wants,  and  the  need  of 
placating  the  forces  that  interfere  with  this  satisfaction. 
Consequently  his  perceptive  faculties  are  highly  developed, 
his  reflective  faculties  hardly  at  all.  Of  the  immediate,  pres- 
ent environment  he  is  conscious ;  and  his  education  is  an 
adjustment  to  this,  without  any  attempt  to  influence  or  con- 
trol the  remote  future  or  to  recapitulate  the  past.  It  is  only 
the  man  of  genius,  then  as  now,  that  suggests  a  modification 
of  an  old  way  or  in  those  times  even  becomes  conscious  of  the 
imitative  process.  Such  men,  unreflective  as  they  are,  their 
shamans  and  familiars,  are  their  only  teachers. 

From  even  this  slight  reflection  upon  observed  experiences 
come  in  time  means  for  making  permanent  records.  Through 
written  records  are  accumulated  the  materials  for  the  forma- 
tion of  general  judgments;  from  reflection  and  the  attempt 
to  interpret  come  the  means  for  measurement;  from  these 
intellectual  instruments  of  measurement  —  mathematical, 
scientific,  and  the  like  —  come  conceptions  of  uniformity,  of 
cause  and  effect,  of  general  law.  The  formulation  of  these 
gives  to  the  world  the  early  philosophies,  cosmologies,  and 
the  germs  of  all  the  sciences.  Of  these  latter  goods,  the 
primitive  man  had  none  at  all.  But  with  their  emergence, 
thought  begins  to  possess  a  definiteness,  impossible  in  the 
animistic  stage,  and  there  develops  a  correspondence  between 
thought  and  things.  Along  with  this  must  grow  up  a  skepti- 
cism concerning  the  old,  a  criticism  of  the  new,  and  progress 


Primitive  Education  15 

into  newer  and  better  things.     Long  before  this  is  reached 
however,  the  primitive  stage  has  been  left. 

Along  with  these  changes  in  the  thought  life  that  mark  the 
transition  from  the  primitive  stage  of  culture  went  others  no 
less  fundamental.  The  patriarchal  family  adopted  a  fixed 
abode ;  and  government  or  social  organization,  based  upon 
territorial  relationship  and  possession  of  land,  succeeded  that 
based  upon  the  blood  tie  of  family  relationship.  Society 
became  political  instead  of  genetic  in  character.  Ancestral 
worship  was  replaced  by  a  worship  of  natural  objects  or 
natural  forces,  or  territorial  gods.  The  gods  of  fire,  of  water, 
of  the  storm,  of  the  harvest,  in  turn,  were  superseded  by  the 
gods  of  war,  of  commerce,  of  music,  of  poetry,  and  of  love, 
and  by  other  such  immaterial  forces.  Man  came  into  fuller 
consciousness  of  his  past  and  its  worth,  of  his  future  and  its 
possibilities.  Education,  in  these  stages,  was  no  longer 
controlled  by  the  present  alone ;  it  became,  through  some 
control  of  his  development  in  the  present,  an  attempt  to 
approximate  in  the  individual  the  worth  of  the  past  or  to 
realize  in  him  the  possibilities  of  the  future,  either  of  this  life 
or  of  the  life  to  come.  Then  the  description  of  education  of 
the  primitive  man,  as  non-progressive  adjustment  to  an 
environment  of  the  immediate  present,  no  longer  avails,  for 
higher  stages  have  been  attained. 

REFERENCES 

The  material  bearing  upon  this  chapter  is  of  a  most  general  anthro- 
pological character.     Of  this  material  the  most  accessible  is  as  follows  :  — 
Chamberlain,  The  Child.    A  Study  of  the  Evolution  of  Man.    Chs.  7 

and  8.     (London,  1891.) 
Chamberlain,  The  Child  and  Childhood  in  Folk  Thought.     (New  York, 

1896.) 
Spencer's  Principles  of  Sociology,  Vol.  I,  Chs.  6-26  inclusive.      (New 

York,  1895.) 
Starr,  First  Steps  in  Human  Progress,  Chs.  21-22,  26.     (New  York, 

1895.) 


1 6  History  of  Education 

Tylor,  Anthropology,  Chs.  4-12.     (New  York,  1871.) 
Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  Vol  I,  Ch.  2.     (New  York,  1880.) 
The  only  direct  discussions  of  this  topic  in  English  are  in  Professoi 
Davidson's  History  of  Education,  Chs.  I,  II,  III,  and  IV  ;  F.  C.  Spencer's 
Education  of  the  Pueblo  Child  (an  elaborate  discussion  of  the  educational 
custom   of   a  particular  primitive   tribe)  ;     Letourneau's   ^Evolution  de 
^education  dans  les  di-verses  races  humaines  (the  most  comprehensive  work 
on  the  subject).     Also   consult  accounts  of  the  initiatory  ceremonies  of 
primitive  people  found  in  the  Folk  Lore  Journal,  and  in  the  reports  of 
Ethnology  published  by  the  United  States  Government. 


TOPICAL  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  What  advance  beyond  primitive  methods  of  education  is  found  in  the 
earlier  caste  systems  of  Egypt  and  India  ? 

2.  To  what  extent  can  a  definite  conscious  educational  process  be  found 
among  the  American  Indians?     (See  Education  of  a  Pueblo  Child,  and 
Ethnological  Studies  of  the  Indians,  published  by  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment.) 

3.  To  what  extent  is   there   a   parallel   between   the   function  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets  and  priests  and  those  of  the  shamans  and  the  patriarchal 
priests  of  primitive  society  ?      (See   Robertson   Smith,  Religion  of  the 
Semites,  etc.) 

4.  What  connection  can  be  discovered,  among  Egyptians,  Chaldeans, 
and  other  ancient  peoples,  between  the  beginnings  of  written  language  and 
the  beginnings  of  schools  and  of  definite  processes  of  instruction? 

5.  What  relation,  if  any,  is  there  discoverable  between  the  educational 
functions  of  the  family  in  primitive  life  and  in  modern  life? 

6.  From  the  point  of  view  of  primitive  education,  what  is  the  meaning 
both  for  the  individual  and  for  society,  of  a  school  ?    Of  the  subjects  of 
study? 


CHAPTER   II 

ORIENTAL  EDUCATION.     EDUCATION  AS  RECAPITULA- 
TION.    THE   CHINESE   AS   A   TYPE 

CONCEPTION  OF  EDUCATION  HELD  BY  THE  CHINESE. 

— The  fundamental  relation  of  education  to  the  entire  scheme 
of  life  of  the  Chinese  is  revealed  in  the  initial  sentence  of  one 
of  the  Confucian  texts  :  "  What  Heaven  has  conferred  is 
called  nature;  an  accordance  with  nature  is  called  the  path 
of  duty ;  the  regulation  of  this  path  is  called  instruction." 
The  purpose  of  education  is  to  train  each  individual  in  this 
path  of  duty,  wherein  is  most  minutely  prescribed  every 
detail  of  life's  occupations  and  relationships.  These  have 
not  varied  for  centuries.  In  reality  Heaven  has  "conferred" 
merely  that  which  exists  —  that  which  was  established,  or, 
rather,  elaborated,  explained,  certified  to,  and  made  authori- 
tative by  Confucius  ;  and  by  him  in  turn  considered  authorita- 
tive because  it  had  the  sanction  of  the  ancestral  approval  of 
many  generations.  The  natural  state  —  that  authoritatively 
approved  by  religion,  morality,  and  the  government  —  is  the 
existing  state  of  relationships.  The  "  path  of  duty  "  is  the 
maintenance  of  that  which  exists,  without  change  or  modifi- 
cation. Education  has  for  its  function  the  training  of  the 
leaders  in  the  knowledge  of  all  this  ancient  learning  respect- 
ing the  order  of  society  and  the  proper  relationships  in  life, 
and  the  training  of  the  entire  population  in  the  proper  modes 
of  conduct  respecting  every  activity,  every  interest  through- 
out life. 

No  age  or  place,  either  in  the  past  or  present,  has  seen  a 
people  that  was  so  thoroughly  controlled  by  the  minutiae  of  cus- 
c  17 


1 8  History  of  Education 

torn,  that  regarded  so  sacredly  its  most  punctilious  observance, 
or  that  has  persisted  so  long  in  this  subserviency  to  the  past. 
Thoroughly  interwoven  as  they  are  with  every  aspect  of  their 
life,  the  educational  ideals  and  practices  of  this  people  explain 
the  long  continuance  of  their  unchanging  social  structure, 
their  conservative  character,  their  chief  moral  traits,  their 
strength  and  weakness,  either  as  individuals  or  as  a  nation. 
For  this  reason  no  other  type  —  in  fact,  no  other  instance  of 
an  educational  system  —  gives  a  clearer  example  of  the  close 
relation  between  education  and  the  social  structure  and  life 
as  a  whole ;  and  nowhere  else  is  education  more  influential 
or  more  successful  in  accomplishing  its  aim. 

Relation  between  Social  Life  and  Education.  —  Because  of 
this  close  relationship  that  education  bears  to  life,  it  possesses 
a  distinctly  moral  character.  While,  as  we  are  soon  to  see, 
the  education  of  the  schools  is  of  a  distinctly  literary  char- 
acter, and  it  is  often  cited  as  an  example  of  a  wholly  formal 
and  unpractical  education,  yet  the  content  of  this  instruction 
and  this  literature  relates  entirely  to  conduct,  and  so  gives  to 
the  individual  thus  trained  both  an  ability  to  shape  his  own 
conduct  aright,  and  a  knowledge  that  will  enable  him  to 
direct  the  conduct  of  others.  Rewarded  as  are  the  learned 
men  or  educated  class  of  no  other  country,  the  successful 
student  of  this  literature  becomes  the  political  official,  with 
complete  control  of  the  organization  and  direction  of  social 
life.  Such  government  as  they  have  consists  in  applying 
these  ancient  rules  of  conduct  to  present  life  ;  their  govern- 
ing class  is  wholly  composed  of  "scholars  in  politics"  ;  their 
aristocracy  is  truly  an  aristocracy  of  learning.  The  aim  of 
the  Chinese  system  of  government  is  to  prevent  change,  and 
hence  they  are  often  represented  as  having  no  government. 
In  a  remarkable  way  that  is  not  true  of  any  Western  people, 
the  education,  the  government,  the  ethical  beliefs  and  prac- 
tices of  the  Chinese  all  are  based  upon  and  all  find  an  expres- 
sion in  a  religion  —  that  of  Confucianism.  Confucianism  is 


Oriental  Education  19 

embodied  in  the  sacred  texts,  The  Four  Books  and  The 
Five  Classics,  These  are  in  part  the  work  of  Confucius 
(551-478  B.C.),  in  part  that  of  his  great  disciple,  Mencius 
(372-289  B.C.),  and  in  part  that  of  later  disciples.  However, 
Confucius  in  his  time  assigned  the  authority  of  more  than 
twenty  centuries  to  the  teachings  that  have  subsequently 
borne  his  name. 

Confucianism  the  Basis  of  Education.  —  In  a  remarkable 
manner  Confucianism  unites  political  or  social  ethics  with 
private  morality.  Of  itself  it  furnishes  rather  a  system  of 
philosophy  than  a  system  of  religion  or  of  worship.  Its  sys- 
tem of  conduct  receives  reenforcement  from  the  other  two 
religions  of  China — Buddhism  and  Taoism.  All  ethical 
teachings  and  all  social  obligations  are  summed  up  in  those 
of  the  "  five  relationships  "  that  are  taught  to  every  child  in 
ten  syllables,  as  an  "  A  B  C  "  of  conduct.  These  are  the  rela- 
tion of  sovereign  and  subject,  parent  and  child,  husband  and 
wife,  brother  and  brother,  friend  and  friend.  As  there  are 
five  senses,  five  elements,  five  planets,  five  races,  five  colors, 
five  notes  in  music,  five  tastes,  five  points  to  the  compass,  so, 
too,  there  are  five  virtues  —  benevolence,  justice,  order,  pru- 
dence, fidelity. 

Strikingly  parallel  to  the  teaching  of  the  Greek  philoso- 
phers, that  virtue  consists  in  moderation,  in  the  medium 
between  excess  and  complete  denial,  in  the  mean  between 
two  vices,  is  this  teaching  of  Confucius  recognized  as  his 
chief  principle :  Perfect  equilibrium  of  emotions  and  pas- 
sions results  in  virtue,  is  "  the  doctrine  of  the  mean  " 
Also  strikingly  similar  to  Greek  ideas  is  Mencius's  teaching 
that  man  is  by  nature  good,  not  evil,  and  that  ethics 
and  education  are  to  preserve  nature  and  direct  him  in  its 
ways.  "  Man,"  he  says,  "  inclines  to  virtue,  as  water  does  to 
flow  downward,  or  as  the  wild  beast  does  to  seek  the  forest." 

The  teachings  of  Confucian  literature  have  received  full 
recognition  and  have  been  given  great  praise.  It  has  beeii 


2O  History  of  Education 

said  of  the  Chinese  "  that  they  have  the  loftiest  moral  code 
which  the  human  mind  unaided  by  divine  revelation  has 
ever  produced,  and  its  crystalline  precepts  have  been  the  rich 
inheritance  of  every  successive  present  from  every  succes- 
sive past."  Especially  has  this  been  claimed  for  the  remark- 
able principle  which  Confucius  puts  into  the  mouth  of  the 
master  when  the  pupil  asks,  "  Is  there  one  good  word  which 
may  serve  as  a  rule  for  the  practice  of  all  one's  life  ? " 
"Yes,"  replies  the  master,  "is  not  reciprocity  such  a  word  ? 
What  you  do  not  want  done  to  yourself  do  not  do  to  others." 
It  is  wholly  characteristic  of  their  ethics  that  this  should  be 
in  negative  rather  than  in  positive  form.  But  while  fullest 
recognition  should  be  given  to  these  principles,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  they  are  few  and  far  between.  For  the  most 
part  these  sacred  writings  are  devoted  to  an  exposition  of 
details  of  conduct  which  are  prescribed  for  every  conceivable 
relationship  and  occasion  in  life.  To  the  great  bulk  of  those 
who  follow  the  teachings  of  this  literature  the  principle  is 
seldom  discovered  on  account  of  the  precepts. 

The  following  brief  passage  from  the  Li-Ki,  or  Book  of 
Rites,  one  of  the  Five  Classics,  will  better  illustrate  the  con- 
tent and  spirit  of  these  sacred  books,  as  it  will  illustrate  at 
the  same  time  the  aim  and  content  of  their  education.  This 
passage  includes  the  opening  paragraphs  of  the  chapter  on 
"The  Pattern  of  the  Family,"  where  one  would  expect  to 
find  the  virtues  of  this  people  set  forth ;  and  is  typical  of  the 
material  that  is  studied  in  the  school. 

Selection  from  Confucian  Text.  — "  r.  The  sovereign  and 
king  orders  the  chief  minister  to  send  down  his  (lessons  of) 
virtue  to  the  millions  of  the  people. 

2.  Sons,  in  serving  their  parents,  on  the  first  crowing  of 
the  cock,  should  all  wash  their  hands,  and  rinse  their  mouths, 
comb  their  hair,  draw  over  it  the  covering  of  silk,  fix  this 
with  the  hairpin,  bind  the  hair  at  the  roots  with  the  fillet, 
brush  the  dust  from  that  which  is  left  free,  and  then  put  on 


Oriental  Education  21 

their  caps,  leaving  the  ends  of  the  strings  hanging  down. 
They  should  then  put  on  their  squarely  made  black  jackets, 
knee  covers,  and  girdles,  fixing  in  the  last  their  tablets. 
From  the  left  and  right  of  the  girdle  they  should  hang  their 
articles  for  use :  on  the  left  side,  the  duster  and  handker- 
chief, the  knife  and  whetstone,  the  small  spike  and  the  metal 
speculum  for  getting  fire  from  the  sun  ;  on  the  right  the 
archer's  thimble  for  the  thumb  and  the  armlet,  the  tube  for 
writing  instruments,  the  knife  case,  the  larger  spike,  and  the 
borer  for  getting  fire  from  wood.  They  should  put  on  their 
leggings  and  adjust  their  shoe  strings. 

3.  (Sons')  wives  should  serve  their  parents-in-law  as  they 
served  their  own.  At  the  first  crowing  of  the  cock,  they 
should  wash  their  hands,  and  rinse  their  mouths ;  comb  their 
hair,  draw  over  it  the  covering  of  silk,  fix  this  with  the  hair- 
pin, and  tie  the  hair  at  the  roots  with  the  fillet.  They  should 
then  put  on  the  jacket,  and  over  it  the  sash.  On  the  left 
side  they  should  hang  the  duster  and  handkerchief,  the  knife 
and  whetstone,  the  small  spike,  and  the  metal  speculum  to 
get  fire  with ;  and  on  the  right,  the  needlecase,  thread,  and 
floss,  all  bestowed  in  the  satchel,  the  great  spike,  and  the 
borer  to  get  fire  with  from  wood.  They  will  also  fasten  on 
their  necklaces,  and  adjust  their  shoe  strings,  etc."  * 

This  continues  for  many  paragraphs  devoted  to  the  con- 
duct of  younger  son,  younger  daughter,  daughter-in-law,  etc., 
and  for  many  chapters  upon  every  possible  activity  and  rela- 
tionship of  individuals  in  the  family.  The  virtues  of  family 
life  are  those  of  filial  duty,  fraternal  love,  friendship,  and  the 
like ;  the  concrete  embodiment  of  these  and  other  virtues  can 
be  judged  in  the  light  of  the  passage  quoted. 

These  texts  contain  no  portrayal  of  immorality  of  the  gods 
as  in  the  Greek  religious  literature,  or  of  those  of  men  as  in  the 
Hebrew,  nor  the  extravagances  of  the  mythologies  of  most 
peoples ;  on  the  other  hand,  they  inculcate  the  solid  virtues 
of  an  unchangeable  and  unprogressive  system  of  society,  and 
of  a  people  destined  to  a  materialistic  and,  of  necessity,  sordid 
view  of  life.  Here  are  no  teachings  to  inspire  the  individual 

1  Muller,  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  37,  p.  449. 


22  History  of  Education 

no  oreath  of  idealism ;  even  the  rare  principles  of  ethical 
character  are  based  wholly  on  arbitrary  authority  or  irrational 
tradition. 

Sufficient  detail  concerning  the  religion,  ethics,  and  sacred 
literature  of  this  people  has  been  given  to  indicate  the  char- 
acter and  purpose  of  their  education.  For  the  individual, 
education  consists  in  the  mastery  of  this  sacred  literature  in 
order  that  he  may  live  in  accordance  with  the  path  of  nature 
marked  out  therein.  This  mastery  necessitates  a  perfect 
memorizing  of  these  sacred  books  and  a  knowledge  of  the 
many  commentaries  upon  them.  In  order  that  the  Confucian 
statement  of  the  work  of  education  may  be  made  socially 
complete,  the  government  adds  one  additional  educational 
aim.  The  conduct  of  government  is  given  into  the  hands 
of  those  who  show  the  greatest  mastery  of  the  content 
of  these  sacred  books  and  an  ability  to  imitate  them  in 
thought,  in  formal  construction,  and  in  archaic  style.  This  is 
accomplished  by  a  system  of  examinations  in  essay  writing. 
Of  the  importance  of  this  ability  to  write  such  essays  Smith 
says  :  "  Measured  by  Chinese  standards,  the  construction  of  a 
perfect  essay  is  one  of  the  noblest  achievements  of  which 
the  human  mind  is  capable.  The  man  who  knows  all  that 
has  been  preserved  of  the  wisdom  of  the  ancients,  and  who 
can  at  a  moment's  notice  dash  off  essays  of  a  symmetrical 
construction,  lofty  in  sentiment,  elevated  in  style,  and  dis- 
playing a  wide  acquaintance  not  only  with  the  theme,  but 
also  with  cognate  subjects,  such  a  man  is  fit  not  only  to  stand 
before  kings,  but  before  the  very  Son  of  Heaven  himself." 
When  these  marked  individuals,  most  able  because  most 
steeped  in  the  life  of  the  past,  with  all  tendency,  ability,  and 
inclination  to  vary  from  the  traditional  form  eradicated,  are 
selected  to  govern  their  fellow-men  and  to  see  that  they  do 
not  violate  "  the  will  of  Heaven  "  and  do  not  wander  from 
"  this  path  of  duty  "  established  by  Heaven,  the  social  aim  of 
education  is  accomplished. 


Oriental  Education  23 

The  Family,  the  Basal  Institution.  —  One  further  point 
concerning  the  general  nature  of  their  education  is  to  be 
noted.  While  instruction  is  given  in  a  special  institution,  — 
the  school,  —  the  family  in  a  peculiar  way  furnishes  the 
basis  of  their  education.  The  ethics  of  the  Chinese  is  one  of 
family  duties  and  activities ;  the  five  great  relationships  are 
all  those  of  the  family  ;  the  content  of  their  sacred  literature 
relates  almost  wholly  to  these  relationships.  Their  religion 
is  an  ancestor  worship.  Filial  piety  is  their  greatest  and 
the  one  encompassing  virtue.  The  family  is  indeed  the 
unit  of  social  organization,  for  the  son  can  be  punished  for 
the  misdeeds  of  the  father.  Their  jurisprudence  and  morals 
consist  in  these  same  definitely  settled  and  prescribed  rules 
such  as  grow  out  of  the  family  relationships.  Thus  the 
family  dominates  their  society,  as  the  institution  of  animism 
did  that  of  primitive  man. 

DURATION,  EXTENT,  AND  MODIFICATION  OF  THE 
CHINESE  SYSTEM  OF  EDUCATION.  —  From  the  fifteenth 
century  before  Rome,  and  the  twenty-second  before  Christ,  the 
Chinese  have  existed  as  a  distinct  nation,  with  some  degree  of 
social  solidarity,  and  with  a  culture  of  a  fixed  society.  In 
this  respect  China  is  typical  of  Oriental  societies  in  general. 
Since  its  educational  system  has  had  a  history  somewhat  simi- 
lar in  length,  and  one  that  has  been  the  vital  factor  in  the 
preservation  of  its  character,  its  educational  system  also  be- 
comes a  type  of  Oriental  education.  "  Before  Abraham  left 
Ur  of  the  Chaldees  in  the  west  of  Asia,"  says  Lewis,  "  an 
Emperor  of  China  had  established  a  system  of  education  in 
the  east  of  Asia,  which  is  still  in  existence,  and  which  has 
produced  a  race  whose  constant  worship  is  bestowed  upon 
those  men,  now  deified,  who  taught  them  the  beauty  and 
power  of  the  Chinese  language."  Though  M.  Biot,  the 
earliest  and  probably  the  most  authoritative  western  investi- 
g;  tor  of  Chinese  education,  traces  the  origin  of  this  system 


24  History  of  Education 

to  the  twenty-third  century  B.C.,  little  that  is  autnentic  can  be 
discovered  before  the  seventh  century  B.C.  After  a  period 
of  civil  war  and  disorder  Confucius  appeared,  reestablished 
the  authority  of  the  sacred  literature,  elaborated  and  per- 
petuated through  his  own  writings  these  teachings  which  he 
at  least  validates  by  assigning  to  them  the  weight  of  an- 
tiquity, directed  his  people  into  that  pursuit  of  peace  which 
has  ever  since  characterized  them  as  a  nation  ;  and  influenced 
them  to  accept,  study,  and  worship  the  teachings  of  this 
literature.  Thus  the  Chinese  became  "  a  people  of  a  book," 
a  nation  founded  on  and  perpetuated  by  a  scheme  of  religious 
and  literary  education.  Mencius  became  a  new  interpreter 
of  the  literature  and  added  to  it  by  similar  elaboration. 

While  the  origin  of  the  present  system  of  education  and 
of  examinations  dates  from  about  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  it 
has  been  subject,  as  has  Chinese  society  in  every  respect,  to 
a  multitude  of  historical  changes.  Though  when  compared 
with  Western  peoples  it  is  permissible  to  say  that  the  institu- 
tions and  customs  of  the  Chinese  are  unchangeable,  yet  there 
has  been  some  development.  However,  it  is  no  part  of  our 
purpose  to  follow  these  changes.  It  is  sufficient  to  note  that 
the  present  system  of  examinations,  in  all  its  details  as  a 
means  of  filling  all  governmental  offices  and  with  its  various 
degrees,  was  established  about  617  A.D.,  upon  the  accession 
of  the  great  T'ang  dynasty.  For  some  centuries  a  system  of 
colleges  was  quite  as  important  as  the  correlative  system  of 
examinations,  but  for  the  last  three  centuries  the  present 
Manchu  dynasty  has  laid  all  stress  upon  the  examinations. 

The  extent  of  this  system  is  little  less  marvelous  than  its 
duration.  It  covers  a  territory  almost  twice  that  of  the 
United  States;  it  controls  a  population  quite  five  times  as 
great.  It  extends  over  one  tenth  of  the  habitable  globe,  and 
includes  one  fifth  of  the  human  race.  That  a  system  of 
education  should  affect  so  large  a  population,  should  remain 
in  existence  for  so  long  a  time  and  should  result,  as  has  this 


Oriental  Education  25 

Hie,  in  the  actual  maintenance  of  this  social  structure,  co- 
extensive in  time  and  space  with  the  educational  system, 
makes  it  well  worth  study  by  any  one  seeking  knowledge  of 
our  own  educational  forces  and  a  basis  of  judgment  of 
educational  practices. 

Since  1895  this  system  has  undergone  changes  which 
will  tend  to  modify  in  a  radical  manner  both  the  education 
and  the  social  life  of  these  people.  In  fact  it  is  universally 
recognized,  both  by  the  Chinese  and  the  Occidentals,  that  a 
change  in  the  life,  government,  social  ideals  and  religion  of 
the  Chinese  can  come  only  through  some  modification  of 
their  educational  system.  As  our  interest  is  in  the  system 
as  a  type,  we  have  no  concern  in  these  current  changes  save 
to  note  the  emphasis  which  they  give  to  the  close  connection 
between  educational  ideals  and  practices  and  the  life  ot 
society  at  large. 

After  the  Chinese-Japanese  War,  owing  to  a  variety  of 
influences,  chiefly  those  of  contact  with  Europeans  and  Ameri- 
cans, the  sentiment  for  the  introduction  of  Western  learning 
began  to  spread  rapidly  among  the  literati  and  the  leading 
officials.  In  1898  the  old  examination  system  was  abolished 
by  edict  of  the  Emperor  and  a  system  of  Western  colleges 
substituted.  This,  however,  was  too  radical  a  change,  and 
shortly  afterward  the  Emperor  was  deposed  by  the  royal 
family.  However,  after  this  practical  demonstration  that 
the  examinations  in  bow  and  arrow  competitions  were  insuffi- 
cient to  produce  leaders  for  a  modern  army,  the  Empress 
Dowager,  the  head  of  the  reactionary  movement,  began,  her- 
self, in  1901  to  introduce  reforms  into  the  old  system.  By 
decree  the  old  orthodox  literary  style  in  examinations  was 
abolished  and  "  short  essays  or  articles  on  modern  methods 
and  Western  laws,  constitutions,  and  political  economy  "  were 
substituted.  In  the  hands  of  men  whose  sympathies  are 
largely  against  them,  and  whose  education  wholly  unfits  them 
for  the  introduction  of  the  new  learning,  it  is  evident  that 


26  History  of  Education 

such  reforms  can  be  only  partial.  Yet,  with  the  prizes  for 
learning,  and  the  extensive  system  that  exists  for  instruction, 
or  at  least  for  examination,  change  cannot  but  be  rapid,  when, 
as  is  the  case,  the  learned  classes  are  becoming  more  sympa- 
thetic with  the  new  ideals. 

CONTENT,  ORGANIZATION,  AND  METHOD  OF  CHINESE 
EDUCATION.  —  It  is  the  uniform  testimony  of  all  competent 
observers  that  in  no  country  is  education  of  a  formal,  that  is 
literary,  character,  so  highly  valued ;  nowhere  has  education 
such  a  direct  and  permanent  influence  in  shaping  the  char- 
acter of  the  people ;  nowhere  are  the  educational  activities 
and  processes  so  uniform.  By  reason  of  its  education  China 
is  a  land  of  absolute  uniformity.  It  is  a  land  of  observance 
of  tradition  and  of  custom,  a  land  in  which  no  change  from 
the  accepted  way  of  thinking,  feeling,  or  doing  is  permitted, 
and  in  which  comparatively  little  really  occurs.  Yet  that 
education  is  most  restricted  in  its  content,  most  formal  in  its 
method,  and  most  stereotyped  and  inflexible  in  its  organiza- 
tion. Let  us  examine  each  in  turn. 

Content.  —  The  purpose  of  the  elementary  stages  of  Chi- 
nese education  is  to  familiarize  the  boy  —  it  goes  without  say- 
ing that  the  girl  has  no  consideration  whatever  in  their  literary 
or  institutional  education  —  with  the  language  and  with  their 
sacred  literature.  Familiarity  here  means  an  absolute  verbal 
knowledge  of  the  entire  literature  and  an  ability  to  compose 
in  the  stilted  formal  and  archaic  style  of  their  writings.  The 
greater  part  of  elementary  and  of  higher  education  consists 
in  memorizing  these  forms  of  language  and  literature  without 
any  necessary  knowledge  of  their  real  significance.  The 
character  of  this  task  can  be  appreciated  by  noting  the  char- 
acter of  both  language  and  literature. 

Character  of  the  Language,  —  The  characters  of  the  Chi- 
nese language  represent  ideas,  not  sounds  :  it  is  an  ideographic, 
not  a  phonetic  language.  Consequently,  it  has  practically  as 


Oriental  Education  27 

many  characters  as  it  has  ideas.  Like  the  arithmetical  digits, 
these  characters  have  no  vocables  —  they  have  a  meaning 
primarily  for  the  eye,  not  the  ear.  It  is  almost  impossible 
to  estimate  accurately  the  number  of  these  characters  com- 
posing the  language.  Most  authorities  estimate  the  number, 
exclusive  of  obsolete  words  and  synonyms,  at  about  25,000. 
Considering  those  characters  that  are  given  a  different  mean- 
ing by  a  stress  mark  as  totally  different,  other  estimates  make 
the  number  260,000.  When  it  is  remembered  that  practically 
it  is  to  be  learned  as  our  alphabet,  even  the  smaller  number 
presents  an  appalling  task  for  the  schoolboy.  However, 
many  of  these  25,000  characters  are  seldom  used.  In  fact, 
the  nine  sacred  books,  which  form  the  bulk  of  their  educa- 
tional material,  contain  less  than  5000  different  characters. 
Again,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  there  are  six  distinct  types 
of  handwriting — similar  to  the  script,  Roman,  italic,  black- 
letter,  etc.,  of  English.  These  are  the  ornamental,  the  official, 
the  literary  or  pattern  style,  the  common  hand,  the  running 
hand,  the  angular  style  similar  to  printing.  Of  these  forms 
several  must  often  be  acquired.  But  more  important  than 
this  so  far  as  concerns  the  schoolboy,  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  this  language  of  the  school  is  practically  a  dead  language 
and  hence  has  little  or  no  connection  with  that  which  he  uses 
in  his  everyday  life.  Verbs  have  no  tense,  voice,  or  mood ; 
nouns  have  no  gender,  number,  or  case.  Since  the  meaning 
and  use  of  a  word  is  determined  altogether  by  collocation,  — 
by  its  relationship  as  shown  by  position  or  by  stress  of  voice, 
—  the  very  simplicity  of  the  grammatical  structure  adds  to  his 
difficulty.  The  use,  then,  of  a  literary  style  —  that  approved 
by  scholarly  standards — is  only  acquired  after  years  of  prac- 
tice of  a  most  rigidly  imitative  character. 

The  Literature  itself  presents  scarcely  less  difficulty  than 
the  language.     In  addition  to  being  in  a  "  dead  language  " 
at  least  not  in  the  spoken  one  —  it  carries  no  meaning  to  the 
student  for  many  years.     "It  is,"  says  Martin,  "as  if   our 


28  History  of  Education 

schoolboys  studied  Latin  alone,  and  were  compelled  to  com 
mit  to  memory  the  leading  Latin  classics,  so  that  they  could 
be  repeated  without  a  single  error,  and  yet  with  no  knowledge 
of  what  the  words,  much  less  the  literature,  meant." 

Stages  of  Schooling. — The  first  period  of  instruction,  that 
in  the  elementary  schools,  is  devoted  to  the  memorizing  of 
the  forms  of  an  infinitude  of  diversely  formed  characters 
through  the  mastery  of  a  few  universally  adopted  texts,  and 
the  memorizing  of  the  nine  canonical  books.  The  second 
stage  is  devoted  to  translation.  As  the  first  stage  had  been 
mere  memorizing  of  form  of  these  texts  and  lessons  in  com- 
position, the  second  is  an  actual  reading.  The  third  stage  is 
devoted  to  the  composition  of  essays  until  the  art  is  suf- 
ficiently acquired  to  enable  one  to  pass  the  examinations. 
This  training  in  composition  writing  entails  a  more  intensive 
study  of  form  and  content  of  their  literature.  The  two  latter 
stages  constitute  their  higher  education. 

The  Content  of  their  Elementary  Education.  —  When  one 
considers  that  these  schools  are  all  voluntary,  and  that  the 
widest  diversity  in  territorial  environment  and  some  consider- 
able variety  of  racial  elements  is  included,  this  content 
possesses  a  remarkable  uniformity. 

The  book  used  everywhere  for  beginners  is  the  Trimet- 
rical  Classic,  so  called  from  the  arrangement  of  the  char- 
acters. Judging  from  the  content  of  this  remarkable 
"  primer,"  one  might  imagine  that  this  large  section  of  the 
human  race  was  very  superior  to  the  rest  in  intelligence; 
but  when  one  remembers  that  the  sole  purpose  in  using  it 
is  to  give  command  of  characters,  of  which  the  book  con- 
tains more  than  five  hundred  different  ones,  all  superiority, 
save  of  a  mechanical  and  memorizing  kind,  disappears.  In 
truth,  the  opening  sentence  of  this  primer  states  a  philo- 
sophical and  religious  doctrine  that  has  been  the  subject  of 
perennial  debate  among  the  learned  of  most  peoples.  These 
opening  lines  are  thus  translated  by  Williams :  — 


Oriental  Education  29 

"  Men  at  their  birth  are  by  nature  radically  good : 
Though  alike  in  this,  in  practice  they  widely  diverge. 
If  not  educated,  the  natural  character  grows  worse  : 
A  course  of  education  is  made  valuable  by  close  attention. 
Of  old,  Mencius's  mother  selected  a  residence, 
And  when  her  son  did  not  learn,  cut  out  the  (half-wove)  web. 
To  nurture  and  not  educate  is  a  father's  error : 
To  educate  without  rigor  shows  a  teacher's  indolence. 
That  boys  should  not  learn  is  an  unjust  thing : 
For  if  they  do  not  learn  in  youth,  what  will  they  do  when  old? 
As  gems  unwrought  serve  no  useful  end, 
So  men  untaught  will  never  know  what  right  conduct  is." 

A  second  of  their  primers  is  the  Century  of  Surnames,  con- 
taining about  four  hundred  different  family  or  clan  names. 
Though  the  mastery  of  this  is  quite  similar  to  learning  the 
genealogical  tables  of  the  Bible,  the  book  has  some  practical 
value.  This  is  followed  by  the  most  remarkable  of  all  these 
texts, —  The  Millenary  Classic.  This  consists  of  just  one  thou- 
sand characters  no  two  of  which  are  alike  in  form  or  meaning, 
but  arranged  to  secure  both  rhyme  and  rhythm.  Naturally 
the  content  is  of  the  most  discursive  character.  These  three 
texts  are  followed  by  the  Odes  for  Children,  Canons  of  Filial 
Duty,  and  the  Juvenile  Instructor,  all  emphasizing  in  tale  or 
precept  the  fundamental  ethical  ideas,  or  rather  observances, 
of  the  Chinese.  As  most  children  in  the  schools  never  get 
beyond  this  stage,  they  have,  in  a  way,  a  remarkable  influence. 
In  many  respects  the  principles  of  morality  inculcated  are 
worthy  and  noble,  in  many  merely  trivial  and  formal.  Yet 
few  of  the  Chinese,  after  all,  obtain  their  ethical  ideas  or  moral 
code  from  these  texts,  so  formal  is  the  character  of  school 
work.  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Martin,  whose  labors  of  a  half-century 
in  the  education  of  the  Chinese,  much  of  the  time  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Imperial  University,  make  him  a  most  com- 
petent critic,  says :  — 

"  Nothing  could  be  more  dreary  than  the  labors  of  the  first 
stage.  The  pupil  comes  to  school,  as  one  of  his  books  tells 


30  History  of  Education 

him,  '  a  rough  gem  that  requires  grinding ' ;  but  the  process 
is  slow  and  painful.  His  books  are  in  a  dead  language,  for 
in  every  part  of  the  Empire  the  style  of  literary  composition 
is  so  far  removed  from  that  of  the  vernacular  speech  that 
books,  when  read  aloud,  are  unintelligible  even  to  the  ear 
of  the  educated,  and  the  sounds  of  their  characters  convey 
absolutely  no  meaning  to  the  mind  of  a  beginner.  Nor,  as 
a  general  thing,  is  any  effort  made  to  give  them  life  by  im- 
parting glimpses  of  their  signification.  The  whole  of  this 
first  stage  is  a  dead  lift  of  memory,  unalleviated  by  the  exer- 
cise of  any  other  faculty." 

This  comment  also  applies  to  the  work  in  the  next  stage  of 
school  life,  the  memorizing  of  The  Four  Books  and  The  Five 
Classics.  This  work  takes  four  to  five  additional  years  and 
completes  the  tasks  of  the  ordinary  village  or  town  schools. 
Of  this  entire  schooling  Martin  adds :  "  During  all  this 
time  the  mind  has  not  been  enriched  by  a  single  idea.  To 
get  the  words  at  the  tongue's  end  and  characters  at  the 
pencil's  point,  is  the  sole  object  of  this  initial  discipline." 

The  nine  sacred  books  are  in  bulk  about  equal  to  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments.  Hence,  to  have  completed  the  work 
of  the  village  or  elementary  schools,  possibly  by  the  age  of 
fifteen,  probably  much  later,  the  youth  has  accomplished  a 
prodigious  feat  of  memory,  but  he  has  acquired  little  else. 

The  Art  of  Writing,  it  is  true,  he  has  also  gained.  This, 
however,  is  of  quite  as  arbitrary  a  character  and  bears  as 
little  relation  to  daily  life  as  does  his  literary  training. 
Stranger  yet  is  the  fact  that  until  he  reaches  the  period  of 
composition  writing,  the  art  of  writing  may  have  little  rela- 
tion to  the  work  he  is  doing  in  reading.  Smith  gives  the 
following  summary  of  this  phase  of  school  work :  — 

"  The  task  of  learning  to  write  Chinese  characters  is  a  very 
serious  one,  in  comparison  with  which  it  is  scarcely  unfair  to 
characterize  the  mastery  of  the  art  of  writing  any  European 
language,  as  a  mere  pastime.  The  correct  notation  of  char- 
acters is,  moreover,  not  less  important  than  the  correct  recog- 


Oriental  Education  31 

nition  of  them,  for  success  in  some  of  the  examinations  is 
made  to  depend  as  much  upon  caligraphy  as  upon  style. 
The  characters  which  the  teacher  selects  for  the  writing 
exercises  of  his  pupils  have  no  relation,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  to  anything  which  he  is  studying.  These  characters 
may  at  first  be  taken  from  little  books  of  rhymes  arranged 
for  the  purpose,  containing  characters  at  once  simple  and 
CO'  .imon.  The  next  step  is  to  change  to  books  containing 
selections  from  the  T'ang  Dynasty  poets,  an  appreciation  of 
which  involves  acquaintance  with  tones  and  rhyme  of  which 
the  pupil,  as  yet,  knows  nothing.  The  characters  which  he 
now  learns  to  write  he  has  very  likely  never  seen  1  efore,  and 
they  do  not  at  all  assist  his  other  studies.  The  01  ily  item  of 
which  notice  is  taken,  is  whether  the  characters  ire  well  or 
ill  formed.  Review  there  is  none.  The  reason  for  choosing 
T'ang  Dynasty  poetry  for  writing  lessons,  instead  of  charac- 
ters or  sentences  which  are  a  part  of  the  current  lesson,  is 
that  it  is  customary  to  use  the  poetry,  and  is  not  customary 
to  use  anything  else,  and  that  to  do  so  would  expose  himself 
to  ridicule." 

From  the  character  of  Chinese  life,  with  its  multitude  of 
necessary  daily  transactions,  the  use  of  cash  of  almost  in- 
finitesimal value,  the  amount  of  time  spent  in  counting  it 
and  the  extremely  practical  and  materialistic  nature  of  their 
daily  occupations,  it  would  seem  that  a  knowledge  of  arith- 
metic would  be  one  of  the  subjects  given  most  prominence  in 
the  schools.  But  it  does  not  appear  at  all.  "  To  add,  sub- 
tract, multiply,  to  know  what  to  do  with  decimal  fractions, 
these  are  daily  necessities  of  every  one  in  China,  and  yet 
these  are  things  which  no  one  teaches."  Such  knowledge  is 
simply  "  picked  up "  in  daily  experience,  or  from  those  in 
business  ;  by  those  who  become  experts  in  special  lines  as 
accountants,  surveyors  of  land,  etc.,  it  is  to  be  learned  only 
from  some  specialist  and  brought  to  perfection  by  the  long 
practice  such  as  only  this  patient  race  can  give. 

Higher  Education  with  the  Chinese  occupies  an  indefinite 
period  terminated  only  by  the  passing  of  'he  govemmental 


32  History  of  Education 

examinations  and  the  securing  of  a  degree.  Since  theii 
higher  education  consists  wholly  in  a  preparation  in  essa}> 
writing  for  these  examinations,  the  content  of  their  schooling 
for  this  higher  period  can  best  be  understood  in  connection 
with  a  description  of  the  system  of  examinations.  It  is  suffi- 
cient to  note  here  that  the  sacred  books  having  been  memo- 
rized, it  is  necessary  to  acquire  some  knowledge  of  their 
content.  This  is  done  through  a  reading,  practically  a  trans- 
lating, of  these  books,  and  more  especially  through  a  study 
of  the  very  numerous  commentaries  upon  them.  Years  may 
be  spent  upon  developing  the  ability  to  write  essays  modeled 
in  formal  style  and  in  thought  content  after  the  sacred  books. 
This  training  is  quite  analogous  to  the  prolonged  drill  in 
Latin  prose  and  verse  composition  that  prevailed  so  long  in 
the  English  public  schools  (see  Chapter  IX)  and  to  a  more 
limited  extent  in  the  early  American  college,  with  this  dif- 
ference, that  the  literature  used  by  the  Chinese  is  the  sacred 
literature  of  their  fundamental  religion  and  it  is  studied  in  the 
vernacular  though  it  is  not  the  colloquial  tongue. 

The  School  System.  -  -  The  institutional  organization  of 
Chinese  education  is  twofold :  there  is,  first,  a  system  of 
schools,  almost  entirely  of  a  private  character  and  devoted  to 
the  mastery  of  the  language  and  sacred  literature  and  to  the 
development  of  this  power  of  essay  writing ;  and,  second,  a 
system  of  examinations,  conducted  by  the  state  and  serving 
as  the  controlling  part  of  their  educational  system. 

Elementary  schools,  wherein  is  mastered  the  curriculum 
as  previously  described,  are  found  in  practically  every  village, 
are  supported  by  private  tuition,  are  patronized  voluntarily, 
and  are  taught  by  unsuccessful  candidates  for  the  degrees, 
or  by  those  less  fortunate  recipients  of  the  lower  degrees, 
who  have  found  no  office  awaiting  them.  Schoolhouses 
there  are  none  to  speak  of ;  school  is  kept  in  any  vacant 
room  of  a  private  house,  of  a  temple  or  public  building,  most 
often  the  ancestral  or  Confucian  temple,  or  it  may  be  in  a 


Oriental  Education 


33 


shed,,  or  any  covered  nook  or  corner.  School  days  are  long 
and  continue  practically  throughout  the  year.  The  school- 
boy, as  also  the  schoolmaster,  is  sharply  separated  off  from 
those  of  his  own  years  and  relationship.  He  must  devote  all 
of  his  time  to  learning,  and  is  disgraced  by  any  labor  or  even 
amusements  such  as  fall  to  the  lot  of  common  mortals.  In- 
deed, the  task  to  be  accomplished  is  so  tremendous  that  it 
takes  all  the  time  of  even  the  brightest  pupil.  Though  the 
expense  is  very  moderate,  only  a  small  number  of  children 
attend  these  schools,  for  such  schooling  has  absolutely  no  use 


A  CHINESE  SCHOOL,  FROM  A  NATIVE  DRAWING.    BOY  BACKING  HIS  BOOK. 

in  life  except  as  preparation  for  the  examinations  and  thus  for 
the  life  of  the  scholar  and  the  public  official.  As  but  one  in 
twenty  of  the  children  who  do  attend  school  ever  get  beyond 
this  elementary  grade,  and  as  a  much  smaller  proportion  ever 
reach  the  coveted  degree  with  office  attached,  it  is,  from  one 
point  of  view,  the  most  wasteful  system  imaginable.  For 
while  it  accomplishes  the  general  social  results  desired,  the 
effects  upon  the  ninety-nine  hundredths  that  fail  is  absolutely 
valueless ;  and  furthermore,  this  education  unfits  them  for 
participation  in  any  ordinary  occupation  in  life,  except  with 
loss  of  prestige.  Thus  most  of  them  must  turn  to  teaching, 


34  History  of  Education 

and,  in  a  population  where  the  struggle  for  existence  is  ab- 
normally severe,  the  profession  that  is  held  in  highest  honor 
becomes  one  of  the  worst  remunerated  and  the  most  burden- 
some. 

Beyond  the  elementary  schools  there  exist  in  the  larger 
cities  numerous  or  at  least  occasional  higher  schools  where, 
through  study  of  commentary  and  practice  in  essay  writing, 
students  are  prepared  for  the  examinations.  Though  fre- 
quently there  are  institutions  resembling  our  academies  and 
colleges,  endowed  or  partly  supported  by  private  gifts  of  the 
wealthy  or  of  the  office-holding  class,  such  schools  are 
usually  private  enterprises.  In  addition  to  these  of  a 
quasi-public  character,  in  a  few  instances  such  schools  are 
supported  by  the  government,  or  by  the  liberality  of  some 
official.  Since  the  source  of  the  fund  is  the  same,  this 
amounts  to  the  same  thing. 

The  Examination  System  has  been  frequently  mentioned 
as  the  central  feature  of  their  education.  Since  these 
examinations  not  only  represent  the  dominant  force  in 
their  education,  but  furnish  the  means  through  which  the 
entire  governmental  and  social  structure  is  maintained,  they, 
in  connection  with  the  Confucian  religion  which  they  incul- 
cate, are  undoubtedly  the  most  important  institution  and  the 
most  influential  force  in  Chinese  society.  In  truth,  they  are 
the  means  by  which  Confucianism  and  traditionalism,  through 
their  absolute  control  of  the  educated  class  and  thus  of  the 
government,  have  continued  to  dominate  so  absolutely  this 
large  population  and  immense  territory. 

In  all  its  features,  the  school  work  is  directed,  not  toward 
any  needs  of  society,  or  even  needs  of  government  or  of 
official  service,  but  toward  the  passing  of  these  examina- 
tions. The  rewards  of  the  successful  candidates  will  explain 
how  such  a  scheme  can  exert  so  great  an  influence  on  educa- 
tion, and  its  connection  with  government  explains  how  it  can 
dominate  the  life  of  society. 


Oriental  Education  35 

From  the  successful  candidates  for  the  final  degree,  that 
of  "entered  scholar,"  or  "fit  for  office,"  are  selected  all 
important  public  officials,  educational  and  civil,  from  the 
imperial  cabinet  down  to  such  minor  local  offices  as  are 
of  such  trivial  importance  that  they  go  to  those  who  have 
passed  only  the  preliminary  examination.  He  who  obtains 
the  preliminary  degrees,  of  "flowering  talent"  and  of  "pro- 
moted man "  is  not  without  rewards.  His  are  honor,  ap- 
plause, and  badges  of  distinction  in  dress  in  a  society  given 
to  the  adoration  of  form  and  outward  embellishment.  His  is 
the  seat  of  honor.  To  him  is  shown  hospitality  at  all  feasts 
and  social  occasions  from  weddings  to  burials  and  to  such 
an  extent  that  a  considerable  portion  of  his  subsistence  is  thus 
gained.  In  a  society  where  every  form  of  approach  and 
every  action  in  life  are  regulated  by  custom,  the  reverence 
and  the  financial  support  of  his  kinsmen  are  his  due.  In  a 
country  where  economic  rewards  and  even  the  bare  neces- 
sities of  life  are  gained  usually  by  incessant  toil,  a  life  of 
comparative  ease  and  honor,  with  no  manual  or  commercial 
labor,  are  his  reward.  There  always  remains  the  possibility 
of  promotion,  through  fair  influences  or  foul,  to  some  official 
dignity  with  at  least  the  opportunity,  if  not  the  legal  assur- 
ance, of  greater  rewards. 

Not  considering  the  preliminary  examinations  on  the  ele- 
mentary course  that  are  often  held,  these  higher  examina- 
tions of  three  grades,  are  wholly  under  the  control  of 
government  officials,  composed,  or  theoretically  so  at  least, 
of  the  pick  of  all  Chinese  scholars  as  previously  selected 
through  examinations  of  the  same  sort. 

Ordinarily  the  first  examinations  are  held  once  in  three 
years  in  each  district  city  by  the  literary  chancellor  hav- 
ing jurisdiction  over  an  entire  province.  The  first  day's 
examination  consists  of  three  essays,  two  on  themes  taken 
from  the  Four  Books  and  one  of  a  poetical  type  taken  from 
the  Book  of  Odes.  These  examinations,  held  in  the  exami- 


36  History  of  Education 

nation  halls  or  cells  such  as  constitute  the  "universities' 
of  this  country,  continue  from  eighteen  to  twenty-four  hours 
of  most  exhausting  mental  labor.  As  out  of  the  six  or 
seven  hundred  candidates,  or  even,  in  some  districts,  two 
thousand  candidates,  only  a  limited  number,  usually  about 
one  in  twenty,  are  allowed  to  receive  the  degree,  this  test 


EXAMINATION  CELLS,  IMPERIAL  UNIVERSITY,  PEKIN. 

must  often  be  repeated  four  or  five  times,  until  the  requisite 
number  are  secured  by  elimination. 

Some  months  later  these,  now  termed  the  "  flower  of  talent," 
repair  to  the  provincial  capital  to  be  examined  for  the  second 
degree,  also  held  every  three  years.  Now  contestants  often 
number  ten  thousand,  of  whom  only  about  one  in  every  hun- 
dred can  obtain  the  coveted  honor.  This  test,  correspond- 
ingly more  severe,  but  of  the  same  character,  ordinarily 
occupies  three  days  and  must  be  repeated  three  or  four 
times.  The  examination  compositions  in  prose  and  verse 


Oriental  Education  37 

cover  a  wide  scope  and  test  the  extent  of  reading,  the  depth 
of  scholarship,  and  the  skill  in  composition  of  the  candidates 
Again,  the  rewards  of  the  successful  examinee,  the  "pro- 
moted scholar,"  are  largely  of  an  immaterial  character.  "  He 
adorns  his  cap  with  a  gilded  button  of  a  higher  grade,  erects 
a  pair  of  lofty  flagstaves  before  the  gate  of  his  family  resi- 
dence, and  places  a  tablet  over  his  door  to  inform  those  who 
pass  by  that  this  is  the  abode  of  a  literary  prize  man."  But 
above  all,  he  can  now  compete  in  the  examination  at  the  im- 
perial capital,  or  in  a  special  examination  held  by  the  chan- 
cellor, the  passing  of  which  admits  him  as  an  "entered 
scholar  "  into  the  ranks  of  the  favored  few  from  whom  all 
higher  officials  are  selected.  The  proportion  passing  this 
examination,  now  thirteen  days  in  length,  is  much  greater 
than  that  in  previous  tests,  and  the  successful  candidate  may 
Boon  hope  to  become  a  mandarin  and  live  and  travel  at  the 
expense  of  the  state.  There  are  no  age  limits  set  for  these 
examinations  at  all;  they  are  simply  tests  of  knowledge 
possessed  and  of  a  certain  imitative  skill  acquired.  As  per- 
sons often  continue  to  try  for  these  prizes  throughout  a 
lifetime,  cases  have  been  known  of  father,  son,  and  grandson 
attempting  the  same  examination.  As  might  readily  be  sup- 
posed, for  many  the  strain  is  such  that  deaths  from  physical 
exhaustion  are  not  uncommon.  Even  yet  this  wonderful 
system  of  the  selection  of  the  fittest  by  elimination  through 
examination  has  not  done  its  perfect  work.  There  is  yet  a 
higher  examination,  to  which  only  the  doctors  or  "entered 
scholars  "  are  admitted  to  competition,  and  from  which  but  a 
few,  a  score  in  all,  are  selected.  Carrying  with  it  no  degree, 
but  an  office  which  ranks  one  above  all  governmental  magis- 
tracies and  practically  constitutes  one  a  member  of  an  im- 
perial cabinet,  this  honor  is  the  most  highly  prized  of  all. 
The  persons  selected  by  this  examination  constitute  the 
Han  Lin  Yuan,  the  Forest  of  Pencils,  or  the  Imperial 
Academy.  As  an  educational  institution  this  academy  pos- 


38  .  History  of  Education 

sesses  only  advisory  and  ceremonial  functions,  but  its  mem« 
bers  are  elsewhere  given  important  governmental  positions. 

From  the  highest  rank  of  students  the  emperor  on  rare 
occasions  may  select  one  as  the  consummate  flower  of  literary 
perfection  out  of  four  hundred  millions  of  people  and  confer 
upon  him  great  ceremonial  distinction.  Formal  educational 
systematization  could  go  no  further. 

The  following  summary  of  examination  statistics  for  a  re- 
cent year  is  given  by  Lewis.  There  are  1705  matriculation 
centers  where  the  preliminary  tests  are  held;  252  centers 
for  the  examination  for  first  degree ;  18  for  that  of  the  second 
degree,  one,  at  least,  containing  30,000  cells ;  and  one  for  the 
third  degree.  But  28,923  bachelors'  degrees  could  be  given 
to  the  760,000  competitors ;  for  the  somewhat  rarer  master's 
degree,  or  promoted  man  examination,  but  1 586  competitors 
were  selected  out  of  a  total  of  190,300.  Not  to  mention 
the  million  or  more  that  were  preparing  for  the  preliminary 
examinations,  there  were  (1903)  960,000  men  preparing  for 
these  examinations,  of  whom  all  but  1839  were  destined  for 
failure. 

Though  these  examination  essays  in  their  themes  and  in 
their  content  often  contain  high  moral  sentiment,  the  test  is 
for  the  most  part  one  of  form.  The  following  examples, 
among  others,  of  themes  for  essays,  are  given  by  Wil- 
liams :  — 

"  To  possess  ability,  and  yet  ask  of  those  who  do  not ;  to 
know  much  and  yet  inquire  of  those  who  know  little ;  to 
possess,  and  yet  appear  not  to  possess ;  to  be  full,  and  yet 
to  appear  empty."  "  He  took  hold  of  things  by  the  two 
extremes,  and  in  his  treatment  of  the  people  maintained 
the  golden  medium."  "  A  man  from  his  youth  studies 
eight  principles,  and  when  he  arrives  at  manhood  he  wishes 
to  reduce  them  to  practice."  "  He  who  is  sincere  will  be 
intelligent,  and  the  intelligent  man  will  be  faithful."  A 
theme  for  versification  was,  "  The  sound  of  the  oar,  and  the 
green  of  the  hill  and  the  water." 


Oriental  Education  39 

The  character  of  these  theme  expositions,  the  chief  excel- 
lency of  all  learning,  will  be  yet  further  seen  in  the  consider 
ation  of  method. 

The  Method  of  Chinese  Education  is  that  of  direct  and  exact 
imitation.  In  the  lower  stages  it  is  purely  a  training  of  the 
memory.  "  The  object  of  the  teacher  is  to  compel  his  pupils, 
first,  to  Remember,  secondly,  to  Remember,  thirdly,  and  ever 
more,  to  Remember."  The  school  of  the  Chinese  is  a  "  loud 
school " ;  each  child  takes  the  appropriate  text,  and  shouts 
aloud  the  passage  until  it  is  impressed  upon  his  memory. 
When  the  assigned  task  is  complete,  he  recites,  or  "backs 
his  book  "  — by  handing  the  book  to  the  teacher,  turning  his 
back,  and  reciting  the  passage  in  high  key  and  rapid  speed, 
without  any  knowledge,  necessarily  at  least,  of  its  meaning. 
Again,  "  the  attention  of  the  scholar,"  to  quote  from  Smith, 
"  is  fixed  exclusively  upon  two  things,  —  the  repetition  of  the 
characters  in  the  same  order  as  they  occur  in  the  book  and  the 
repetition  of  them  at  the  highest  attainable  rate  of  speed." 

Owing  to  their  number,  their  peculiar  form,  and  the  very 
slight  distinction  between  them,  the  method  of  writing  or 
forming  characters  is  necessarily  a  matter  of  most  accurate 
imitation.  Hence  this  knowledge  is  acquired  altogether 
through  the  use  of  tracing  paper.  With  time  the  char- 
acters are  made  smaller,  as  their  use  of  the  brush  —  their 
substitute  for  a  pen  —  becomes  more  expert,  and  finally 
characters  may  be  reproduced  altogether  from  memory  of 
form. 

It  would  seem  that  the  writing  of  essays  as  the  great  out- 
come of  this  system  of  education  possessed  peculiar  merit, 
in  that  it  is  a  test  of  ability  or  power  rather  than  a  test  of 
knowledge.  But  this  merit  is  in  appearance  only;  for  the 
ability  is  again  wholly  one  of  imitation.  The  one  who  can 
imitate  the  construction,  the  metrical  form  in  poetry,  the 
balanced  structure  in  prose,  of  their  sacred  literature  is 
the  successful  theme  writer.  It  is  as  though  our  whole 


40  History  of  Education 

aim  in  school  was  to  develop  the  ability  to  write  essays 
similar  in  form  and  structure,  and  approximating  in  senti- 
ment, the  Proverbs  or  Psalms.  While  the  ability  to  imitate 
the  form  might  without  doubt  be  readily  developed  in  the 
average  boy,  the  degree  to  which  corresponding  ideas  of  an 
original  character  could  be  called  forth  can  be  readily 
imagined.  Or  again,  the  success  of  the  average  schoolboy 
of  a  few  generations  ago  in  rivaling  Homer  or  Virgil  may 
be  taken  as  a  similar  criterion.  In  reality  the  aim  of  the 
entire  training  is  not  to  develop  originality,  but  to  suppress 
it ;  not  to  develop  creative  power,  but  power  of  imitation  ; 
not  to  produce  literary  ability,  but  the  ability  of  the  clever 
versifier  and  parodist.  Martin  describes  the  method  of  this 
training  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  first  step  in  composition  is  the  yoking  together  of 
double  characters.  The  second  is  the  reduplication  of  these 
binary  compounds  and  the  construction  of  parallels  —  an  idea 
which  runs  so  completely  through  the  whole  of  Chinese  litera- 
ture that  the  mind  of  the  student  requires  to  be  imbued  with 
it  at  the  very  outset.  This  is  the  way  he  begins  :  The  teacher 
writes  '  Wind  blows,'  the  pupil  adds  '  Rain  falls ; '  the 
teacher  writes  '  Rivers  are  long,'  the  pupil  adds  '  Seas  are 
deep,'  or  '  Mountains  are  high,'  etc.  From  the  simple 
subject  and  predicate,  which  in  their  rude  grammar  they 
describe  as  '  dead  '  and  '  living '  characters,  the  teacher  con- 
ducts his  pupil  to  more  complex  forms,  in  which  qualifying 
words  and  phrases  are  introduced.  He  gives  as  a  model  some 
such  phrase  as  'The  emperor's  grace  is  vast  as  heaven  and 
earth,'  and  the  lad  matches  it  by  'The  sovereign's  favor  is 
profound  as  lake  and  sea.'  These  couplets  often  contain 
two  propositions  in  each  member,  accompanied  by  all  the 
usual  modifying  terms  ;  and  so  exact  is  the  symmetry  required 
by  the  rules  of  the  art  that  not  only  must  noun,  verb,  adjec- 
tive, and  particle  respond  to  each  other  with  scrupulous  exact- 
ness, but  the  very  tones  of  the  characters  are  adjusted  to 
each  other  with  the  precision  of  music.  Begun  with  the 
first  strokes  of  his  untaught  pencil,  the  student,  whatevei 
his  proficiency,  never  gets  beyond  the  construction  of  paral- 


Oriental  Education  41 

Jels.  When  he  becomes  a  member  of  the  Institute  or  a  minis- 
ter of  the  Imperial  Cabinet,  at  classic  festivals  and  social 
entertainments,  the  composition  of  impromptu  couplets, 
formed  on  the  old  model,  constitutes  a  favorite  pastime." 


RESULTS  OF  THE  CHINESE  SYSTEM  OF  EDUCATION. 

—  The  statement  of  the  aims  of  Chinese  education  previously 
made  is  a  partial  statement  of  its  results.  For  it  may  be  af- 
firmed that  in  a  fuller  sense  than  in  any  other  system  we  will 
have  to  consider,  the  desired  results  are  obtained.  That  for 
many  centuries  a  nation  has  sought  to  maintain  itself  and 
accomplish  its  ends  by  education,  and  that  the  system  of 
education  elaborated  was  and  is  adequate  to  accomplish  con- 
sciously formulated  objects,  is  a  significant  fact.  With  Occi- 
dental nations,  such  a  conception  of  education  —  one  having 
social  as  well  as  individual  functions  —  is  of  comparatively 
recent  development.  Yet  this  is  possible  because  its  object  is 
negative.  Not  to  develop  the  individual,  but  to  suppress  in- 
dividuality, not  to  secure  social  progress,  but  social  stability, 
is  its  aim.  This  negative  or  static  character  of  the  goal  ex 
plains  its  comparative  success.  A  stationary  target  is  more 
readily  hit  than  a  moving  one.  On  the  other  hand,  in  its 
socjal  outcome  and  its  influence  on  individual  character, 
modern  education  works  toward  an  ever  changing,  ever  ad- 
vancing goal.  It  does  not  seek  to  fit  an  individual  into  a 
predetermined  environment,  but  to  develop  in  him  the  ability 
to  determine  in  large  measure  his  own  environment. 

The  most  important  result  to  notice  is  that  Chinese  education 
accomplishes  its'  great  purpose,  in  that  it  secures  the  stability 
of  society,  the  perpetuity  of  the  empire,  the  conservation  of 
the  past.  "  It  is  the  consensus  of  opinion  that  Confucius  did 
not  teach  morals  for  the  sake  of  the  individual,  but  to  secure 
the  peace  and  stability  of  the  empire,"  says  Lewis.  Of  the 
two  great  social  forces,  the  one  working  for  progress  through 
development  of  i~he  individual,  the  other  working  for  ordei 


42  History  of  Education 

and  stability  through  the  subjection  of  the  individual  to  cus- 
tom, the  latter  alone  receives  emphasis  with  the  Chinese. 
The  long  duration  of  the  empire,  and  the  perfection  and 
stability  of  the  educational  system  which  have  been  noticed, 
are  sufficient  evidences  of  the  truth  that  here  can  be  merely 
stated. 

In  a  second  result,  is  found  one  of  the  important  ac- 
companying conditions  of  this  general  status.  The  educa- 
tion appropriate  to  this  great  task  has  for  the  mind  of  students 
certain  peculiar  psychological  merits,  and  other  pronounced 
defects.  While  there  results  a  very  thorough  training  of  the 
mind  along  narrow  lines,  the  results  upon  the  individual, 
though  marked,  are  restricted.  The  mind  is  not  symmetri- 
cally trained ;  for  while  its  retentive  powers  are  tremendously 
strengthened,  while  there  are  developed  the  power  of  appli- 
cation to  the  mastery  of  details,  the  ability  to  recognize  fine 
distinction  of  form,  and  the  ability  to  imitate,  there  is  a  lack 
of  power  of  initiative,  of  inventiveness,  of  adaptability,  and 
of  all  creative  functioning.  The  patience  of  this  race,  the 
exactness,  both  in  scholarship  and  in  details  of  common  life, 
the  power  of  voluntary  attention,  are  thus  results  of  their  edu- 
cation. Of  a  certain  kind  of  information  there  is  wide  appre- 
ciation, but  most  great  branches  of  knowledge  are  disparaged. 
"  Every  department  of  letters,"  says  Williams,  speaking  of 
the  classics,  "save  jurisprudence,  history,  and  official  statis- 
tics, is  disesteemed  in  comparison,  and  the  literary  graduate 
of  fourscore  will  be  found  deficient  in  most  branches  of 
general  learning,  ignorant  of  hundreds  of  common  things  and 
events  in  his  national  history  which  the  merest  schoolboy  in 
the  Western  world  would  be  ashamed  not  to  know  in  his." 

While  there  is  so  much  to  disparage  in  the  Chinese  system 
of  education,  yet  frequently  there  has  been  suggested  by  those 
familiar  with  it,  a  similarity  to  the  schooling  of  the  linguistic 
education  that  prevailed  so  extensively  a  few  generations  ago 
(see  Chapter  IX).  In  the  fact  that  both  are  wholly  literary, 


Oriental  Education  43 

that  both  are  devoted  largely  to  the  mastery  of  the  form  of 
the  language  and  literature,  that  comparatively  few  get  to  the 
point  of  entering  into  the  spirit  of  the  literature,  that  with 
both  the  literature  is  in  what  is  practically  a  dead  language, 
that  the  school  training  is  largely  in  formal  verse  and  prose 
composition,  in  which  form  is  made  most  important,  since  the 
youth  is  manifestly  unable  to  rival  the  thought,  and  that  all 
other  branches  of  knowledge  are  undervalued  and  their  rec- 
ognition in  the  process  of  instruction  disparaged,  in  all  these 
points  the  two  present  a  striking  analogy.  Both  aim  at  a 
disciplinary  training  which  comes  largely  through  the  mas- 
tery of  the  form  of  a  language  ;  in  content  neither  has  direct 
relation  with  the  immediate  needs  of  society ;  yet,  in  regard 
to  the  actual  processes  of  society,  the  Chinese  literature  bears 
a  much  closer  relation  than  does  the  literature  of  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  to  the  society  of  the  eighteenth  or  nineteenth 
century.  However,  this  is  not  all  of  the  problem;  for  the  con- 
tent value  of  the  classical  literature  is  so  much  greater  than 
that  of  the  Chinese  that  when  the  general  results  upon  the 
intellectual  life  and  social  development  are  considered,  there 
is  little  basis  for  comparison.  However,  this  further  analogy 
is  to  be  noted ;  the  disciplinary  education  based  upon  classical 
literature  (Chapter  IX)  was,  and  is  yet,  favored  in  an  aristo- 
cratic form  of  society  where  the  forces  of  social  stability  find 
greater  emphasis  than  those  of  social  progress. 

While,  as  just  noted,  the  content  of  their  literary  education 
has  little  direct  connection  with  the  practical  needs  of  every- 
day life,  in  that  it  contains  no  arithmetic,  geography,  training 
in  the  practical  arts,  or  study  of  the  national  resources,  in  a 
way  it  does  have  a  most  direct  relation  to  their  life.  This  is 
because  their  literary  education  relates  to  the  form  of  con- 
duct and  of  government.  The  great  art  with  them  is  that  of 
conduct ;  the  scholar  is  the  one  versed  in  the  most  approved 
forms,  and  thus  is  fitted  to  become  the  ruler  in  society  and 
the  director  of  the  conduct  of  others. 


44  History  of  Education 

Stated  on  the  individual  side,  the  same  general  result 
means  the  suppression  of  individuality.  This  becomes  a  most 
prominent  conscious  aim,  and  is  carried  out  in  the  most 
minute  detail.  In  his  examinations,  "  his  quotations  in  sup- 
port of  his  argument  must  not  contain  a  flaw  in  penmanship, 
nor  an  error  in  recollecting  a  passage,  and  if  he  deviates 
from  the  orthodoxy  of  the  great  commentator  he  is  doomed 
to  failure  "  (Lewis,  p.  128).  In  their  versification  the  very 
positions  of  the  ideographs  are  fixed ;  in  some  essays  even 
the  number  of  spaces  is  marked  by  cross-ruling  of  the  paper, 
and  any  deviation  from  the  established  form  for  the  sake  of 
clearness  of  thought,  results  in  "  death  to  success."  Thus 
imitation  from  being  a  virtue,  soon  becomes  a  necessity,  and 
the  man  best  educated  and  most  marked  for  success  is  the 
man  who  possesses  the  least  originality  and  can  reproduce 
most  accurately  the  ancient  modes  of  thought  and  action. 

The  aim  of  education  being  to  reduce  all  life  to  conform- 
ity with  the  past,  the  aim  of  instruction  being  to  impart  an 
accurate  and  detailed  knowledge  of  these  forms  to  those 
who  are  to  control  society,  it  is  the  formal,  the  external,  the 
prescribed,  that  comes  to  dominate  in  their  lives.  The  fact 
that  their  sacred  literature  contains  little  of  principle,  but  a 
tremendous  multitude  of  prescriptions,  has  been  previously 
noted ;  life,  bound  down  by  external  observances  of  these 
forms,  gives  little  or  no  room  for  free  moral  sentiment,  for 
individual  opinion.  As  was  indicated  in  the  selection  given 
(p.  21),  the  externality  of  their  moral  virtues  is  readily  seen 
even  in  the  character  of  the  highest  of  them  —  those  relating 
to  the  family.  "  All  this  do  with  the  appearance  of  pleasure," 
is  sententiously  added.  Acts  have  only  an  outer,  not  an 
inner  meaning.  Blameless  and  intentional  acts  are  judged 
by  the  same  standards.  In  this  is  found  the  chief  occasion 
of  disputes  with  foreigners.  The  moral  quality  of  an  act 
does  not  lie  in  its  intent,  but  in  its  actual  form,  just  as  virtue 
consists  not  in  the  spirit  or  the  principle,  but  in  objective 


Oriental  Education  45 

manifestation.  Thus  it  happens  that  the  standards  of  con- 
duct, especially  of  personal  morality,  are  extremely  low, 
despite  the  fact  that  the  teachings  of  their  moral  leaders  are 
comparatively  high.  Through  the  absence  of  the  principle 
of  freedom,  and  the  dominant  idea  of  formal  observance,  all 
sense  of  shame  and  of  dignity  and  of  personal  responsibility 
tends  to  be  absent. 

Education,  then,  does  not  seek  to  develop  human  capacity 
or  ability,  but  to  store  the  memory  with  acknowledged  forms ; 
where  conduct  is  directed  by  precept  rather  than  by  principle 
the  necessity  for  the  development  of  ability  to  interpret  rule 
is  replaced  by  necessity  for  developing  power  of  memory  to 
retain  a  multitude  of  facts.  The  following  summary  of  the 
results  upon  the  individual  is  given  by  Lewis. 

"  He  can  compose  elegant  Chinese  prose,  according  to  the 
fixed  laws  of  composition.  He  commands  from  memory  the 
bulk  of  the  thirteen  classics,  which  means  that  his  conversa- 
tion and  writing  are  punctuated  with  classical  allusions.  It 
is  probable  that  he  has  the  ability  to  compose  epigrams,  and 
epigrammatic  couplets  and  quatrains.  He  is  saturated  with 
the  family  law  and  a  knowledge  of  the  five  relations  —  the 
fundamentals  of  sociology.  He  believes  that  the  ruler  has 
divine  right  and  the  scholar  has  divine  opportunities.  He 
doubts  not  that  China  is  the  Central  Nation  of  the  world,  not 
only  geographically  but  intellectually.  Foreign  nations  are 
to  him  barbarous,  and  rightfully  should  seek  culture  from 
Heaven's  Country.  Their  brutal  militarism  explains  their 
dominance.  He  knows  the  life  story  of  China's  rulers,  sages, 
scholars,  statesmen,  and  poets.  He  thinks  he  knows  the  prin- 
ciples of  Cosmos,  and  the  rules  for  unlocking  its  laws.  He 
has  at  his  disposal  remarkable  but  rude  astronomical  calcu- 
lations. He  has  been  taught  to  disdain  foreigners  with  their 
'  strange  doctrines  '  and  their  disregard  for  '  propriety.'  He 
is  well-bred  according  to  standards  which  are  older  than 
European  history,  and  he  hesitates  to  recognize  as  a  gen- 
tleman a  man  who  does  not  conform.  If  your  manners  are 
not  his,  then  yours  are  not  good  manners.  The  Chinese 
Uteratus  fastens  his  black  eyes  upon  you,  reads  your  char 


46  History  of  Education 

acter,  sifts  your  motives,  and  thinks  he  makes  an  altogethei 
keener  analysis  of  you,  than  you  do  of  him.  He  knows  no 
rules  of  psychology,  but  without  them  may  make  a  better 
psychological  diagnosis  than  you  do."1 

CHINESE  EDUCATION  AS  A  TYPE  OF  ORIENTAL  EDU- 
CATION.—  The  purpose  of  this  somewhat  prolonged  consid- 
eration of  Chinese  education,  is  not  to  gain  a  knowledge  of 
Chinese  education  alone,  but  to  obtain  a  knowledge  of  Orien- 
tal education  in  general.  Of  this  the  education  of  the 
Chinese  forms  an  excellent  type.  Many  others  of  these  sys- 
tems, of  quite  as  great  intrinsic  and  historic  importance,  are 
not  considered  at  all.  In  many,  if  not  most  details,  other 
systems  of  Oriental  education  present  diversities ;  but  in  pur- 
pose and  spirit,  and  in  general  principles  underlying  the  con- 
ception of  education,  all  are  in  fundamental  agreement. 

Oriental  education  represents  a  stage  in  transition  between 
that  of  primitive  man  and  that  of  Occidental  peoples.  In 
primitive  society,  education  has  not  passed  beyond  the  family 
and  the  rudimentary  priesthood :  in  Oriental  society,  written 
languages  are  developed,  literature  becomes  the  basis  of  their 
higher  or  theoretic  education,  and  there  is  developed  a  sys- 
tem of  schools  either  independent  of  the  priesthood,  as  with 
the  Chinese,  or  in  connection  with  it.  In  a  peculiar  way,  China 
presents  a  case  of  arrested  development;  while  its  educa- 
tional process  has  largely  passed  without  the  circle  of  the 
family,  the  family  yet  remains  the  basis  of  social  structure. 
Their  morality  is  little  above  that  of  family  morality ;  at  least, 
its  principles  of  family  morality  and  family  relations  are 
simply  projected  on  a  larger  scale  so  as  to  include  all  society. 
The  environment  of  the  Oriental  is  no  longer  the  simple 
unorganized  one  of  the  primitive  man,  living  yet  in  a  genetic 
social  order.  There  are  now  the  complex  social  relations  of 
the  family,  the  state,  the  religious  organizing  of  industry,  of 

1  Lewis,  7'kt  Educational  Conquest  of  tht  Far  East,  pp.  153-4. 


Oriental  Education  47 

jommerce,  of  military  activities,  and  a  great  variety  ot  others. 
As  a  transitional  stage,  the  great  difficulty  and  importance  of 
the  mastery  of  the  language  is  the  most  marked  feature. 
Education  becomes  little  less  than  the  mastery  of  the  lan- 
guage and  of  a  very  restricted  type  of  religious  historical 
literature. 

One  other  important  aspect  of  this  transitional  phase  is  seen 
in  the  attitude  toward  the  individual.  Primitive  ethics  and 
education  were  unconscious  of  the  rights  of  personality  and 
of  the  importance  of  the  individual.  In  both  the  ethics 
and  the  education  of  the  Oriental,  the  individual  has  risen 
into  consciousness  ;  but  just  as  consciously  society  seeks 
through  religion  and  through  education  to  repress  the  indi- 
vidual. In  theory  individuality  is  hostile  to  social  welfare. 
In  their  highest  thought,  as  in  the  religion  of  the  Hindu, 
the  goal  of  personal  development  is  absorption  in  Nirvana 
and  thus  the  annihilation  of  the  individual.  Only  with  the 
Greek,  or  at  best  with  the  Hebrew  in  its  later  develop- 
ment, is  there  some  thought  of  possible  individual  devel- 
opment not  in  antagonism  to  social  order  and  social  good. 

Thus  there  follows  a  further  characteristic  of  Oriental 
education  in  which  China  is  typical :  life  in  its  purpose  and 
character,  and  education  in  its  aim  and  processes  are  con. 
trolled  by  some  form  of  external  despotic  authority.  The 
individual  has  a  place  in  society,  fixed  by  some  authority  out- 
side of  himself,  to  which  he  is  predetermined.  Education  is 
simply  the  process  of  fitting  him  into  this  place.  This 
formal  authority  takes  various  shapes,  allowing  now  some  little 
freedom,  again  none  at  all.  With  the  Chinese,  the  social  class 
lines  are  not  wholly  predetermined ;  hence  there  is  some 
shifting  in  class  organization,  and  therein  their  educational 
system  possesses  a  merit  above  that  of  several  other  Oriental 
types.  The  external  authority  here  is  that  of  tradition 
exerted  through  the  family.  The  dominance  of  the  family, 
expressed  in  Confucianism  and  worked  out  through  every 


48  History  of  Education 

detail  of  social  procedure,  binds  the  individual  to  the  author- 
ity of  the  past.  In  India  this  external  authority  resides  in 
the  caste  system  ;  in  ancient  Persia  it  resided  in  the  state ; 
in  ancient  Egypt,  in  a  politico-religious  priesthood.  In  none 
is  there  any  room,  save  by  chance,  for  the  development  of 
personality.  Where  there  is  opportunity  given  for  the  devel- 
opment of  ability,  as  with  the  Chinese,  all  development  of 
individuality  is  guarded  against,  and  free  expression  of  per- 
sonality finds  no  opportunity. 

The  result  of  this  dominance  of  external  authority  in  their 
life  and  the  development  of  an  appropriate  educational  scheme 
to  carry  it  out  is  twofold  ;  society  becomes  stable  but  remains 
stationary.  Both  materially  and  spiritually  civilization  is 
non-progressive.  Thus  it  happens  that  in  such  societies 
education  most  readily  accomplishes  its  purpose.  It  is  true 
that  this  stability  only  relates  to  internal  forces ;  but  when  a 
people  is  isolated,  like  the  Chinese,  such  an  education  is 
effective  for  a  long  period.  Neither  individually  nor  socially, 
however,  does  this  stability  give  power  of  adjustment  to  new 
conditions. 

On  the  side  of  the  inner  or  subjective  life,  it  is  the  external 
and  prescriptive  that  again  controls.  All  that  belongs  to  the 
free  spirit  is  wanting,  and  in  this  the  Chinese  education  is 
again  typical.  The  art,  science,  religion,  education,  of  a  West- 
ern people  is  wanting,  or  tends  to  be  wanting.  Art  becomes 
external  decoration;  literature  an  effusive  formulation  wherein 
merit  is  in  style  not  thought;  science  becomes  occultism,  and 
discoveries  are  the  result  of  accident ;  religion  becomes  a 
mere  formal  worship,  in  which  there  is  little  room  for  free 
personality  ;  morals  are  governed  by  utilitarianism  ;  education 
has  no  room  for  "  self-activity."  If  to  these  characterizations 
there  are  marked  exceptions,  such  exceptions  at  least  indicate 
the  all-pervading  tendency. 

Thus  it  results  that  among  most  of  those  Oriental  peoples 
there  is  to  be  found  an  educational  system  of  merit,  often  of 


Oriental  Education  49 

long  standing  and  of  most  successful  operation.  Such  systems 
show  an  accurate  correlation  between  purposes  and  results  ; 
but  while  they  must  be  ranked  high  from  such  a  basis  of  judg- 
ment, comparison  with  more  modern  systems  must  be  insti- 
tuted upon  the  basis  of  purpose. 

The  rapidity  with  which  the  Japanese  have  modified  their 
ancient  social  structure  and  assimilated  the  culture  of  Western 
civilization,  chiefly  by  means  of  the  adoption  and  possible  im- 
provement of  the  ideas  and  methods  of  Western  education, 
indicates  the  extent  to  which  the  characteristics  of  Oriental 
society  are  due  to  the  established  education  rather  than  to 
inherent  racial  traits. 

Such  a  system  of  education  aims  simply  to  recapitulate  the 
past,  to  sum  up  in  the  individual  the  life  of  the  past,  in  order 
that  he  may  not  vary  from  it  or  advance  beyond  it.  It 
aims  to  form  habits  of  thought  and  action  identical  with 
those  of  the  past  without  developing  any  ability  to  modify  or 
adjust  habit  to  new  conditions.  So  far  as  instruction  is  added 
to  training,  it  is  without  any  rational  basis.  It  is  not  instruc- 
tion in  the  sense  that  it  seeks  to  interpret  to  the  individual 
the  meaning  of  a  social  custom.  At  every  point  education  con- 
sists in  indicating  to  the  individual  what  to  do,  to  feel,  or  to 
think  ;  the  exact  way  in  which  the  act  is  to  be  performed,  or 
the  emotional  reaction  expressed  ;  and  finally  constant  repeti- 
tion until  the  habit  is  unalterably  fixed.  This  is  education  as 
Recapitulation. 

REFERENCES 

Laurie,  Historical  Survey  of  Pre-Christian  Education,  Pt.  III. 

Lewis,  The  Educational  Conquest  of  the  Far  East,  Pt.  II.     (New  York. 


Martin,  Lore  of  Cathay.  (London,  1901.) 
Martin,  The  Chinese.  (New  York,  1881.) 
Martin,  Chinese  Education,  the  U.S.  Department  of  Education.  (Wash 

ington,  1877.) 
Smith,  Village  Life  in  China,  Chs.  IX,  X.     (New  York,  1899.) 

£ 


50  History  of  Education 

Smith,  Chinese  Characteristics.     (New  York,  1894.) 
Williams,  The  Middle  Kingdom,  Vol.  I,  Ch.  IX.     (New  York,  1893.) 
Wilkinson,  Education  of  the  Asiatics.     (London,  1902.) 
The  Chinese  Classics,  translated  by  Legg,  in  Max  M tiller's  Sacred  Books  of 
the  East. 

TOPICAL  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  What  further  elaboration  of  the  conception  and  aim  of  education  can 
you  discover  in  a  study  of  the  Chinese  sacred  literature? 

2.  What  educational  value  has  the  essay  writing  of  the  Chinese  ? 

3.  What  similarity  between  this  system  of  essay  writing  and  the  prose 
and  verse  exercises  of  the  old  classical  education  ? 

4.  What  inferences  can  be  drawn  from  Chinese  education  concerning  the 
value  and  results  of  memory  training  in  education  ? 

5.  What  connection  can  be  found  between  education  and  social  welfare? 

6.  Compare  any  one  of  the  other  types  of  Oriental  education  with  the 
Chinese  in  respect  to  purpose,  organization,  curriculum,  method,  results,  or 
relation  to  society. 

7.  Compare  the  relationship  that  exists  between  education  and  religioh 
of  the  Chinese  with  the  same  relationship  among  any  other  Oriental  people. 

8.  Make  a  similar  comparison  in  regard  to  the  relation  between  educa- 
tion and  the  family. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SURVEY  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION 


WRITINGS  POS- 

POLITICAL 
EVENTS 

POETS, 
DRAMATISTS, 
ORATORS,  ETC. 

PHILOSOPHERS, 
SOPHISTS 

SESSING  DIRECT 
EDUCATIONAL 

EDUCATIONAL 
EVENTS 

SIGNIFICANCE 

First  Olympiad  776 
Dominance  of 
Sparta  .  750-600 
Messenian 

Homer  flourished 
c  .  900  or  850 
Hesiod     .     .  c  .  700 
Terpander     .  c.  676 

Thales       .  c.  624-548 
Anaximander 
c.  611-547 
Anaximenes  ^.588  524 

Iliad  .     .     .  c.  850 
Laws  of  Lycurgus 

c  .  850  or  800 

Parental  duty 
in  education 
in  Solon's 
Laws     .  594 

Wars    .  743-668 
Laws  of  Draco  629 
Laws  of  Solon    594 
The  Pisistra- 

Sappho     .     .  c  .  612 
Thespis    .     .  c  .  536 
Simonides     556-468 
Pindar  c.  522-^.  443 

Pythagoras  c.  580  500 
Heraclitus    c.  525  47; 
Anaxagoras  c.  500-42? 
Zeno,  the  Eleatic 

Origin  of  the 
drama  c.  556 

tids   .     .  560-510 
Laws  of 

jEschylus     525-456 

fl.  c.  460  440 

Clisthenes   .   509 

Persian 

Wars     .  500-479 

Athenian  su- 

premacy 479-431 

Confederacy  of 

Delos  477-450  B.C. 

Age  of 
Pericles    459-431 
Peloponnesian 

Sophocles     495-405 
Euripides     480-406 
Phidias     .    488-432 

Gorgias      .  c  .  485-380 
Protagoras    c  480  411 
Prodicus     .     fl.  c.  435 

Thucydides'  Peri- 
cles Oration  431 
Aristophanes' 

Protagoras 
teaches  at 
Athens  .  445 

War.     .  431-404 

Herodotus 

Socrates     .      469-399 

Clouds      .       423 

Trial  of 

Sicilian  expedi- 
tion .     .  415-413 
Spartan  su- 

c. 484-^.  425 
Thucydides  471-400 
Aristophanes 

Antisthenes      422-371 
Plato      .     .       420  348 
Isocrates    .       436-338 

Plato's  Protagoras 
Plato's  Republic 
<r-395 

Socrates  399 
[socrates 
establishes 

premacy  404-371 
Retreat  of  the  Ten 

450-385 
(Old  comedy) 

Aristotle    .      384-322 

Plato's  Laws  c.  350 
Xenophon's 

a  school  at 
Athens  .  392 

Thousand   .    399 
Theban  su- 

Xenophon   434-359 
Menander    344-292 

Economics  c.  380 
Xenophon's  Memo- 

Founding 
of  the 

premacy  371-362 
Philip  of  Mace- 

(New  comedy) 
Demosthenes 

rabilia      .  c.  380 
Xenophon's  Cyro- 

Academy  386 
Founding 

don  .     .  359-336 

384-322 

pedeia       ,  c.  380 

of  the 

The  Sacred 

Isocrates'  Against 

Lyceum   335 

Wars     .  346-338 

the  Sophists   390 

338  B.C.     Battle  of 

Isocrates' 

Chaeronea 

Exchange  of 

Estates     .      354 

Macedonian 

Theocritus    .  i.  324 

Epicurus    .       341-270 

Aristotle's  Politics 

Museum  at 

supremacy  338 
Alexander  the 

Polybius 

c  .  205-c.  123 

Zeno      .     .  c.  350-260 
^hrysippus      280-207 

<r.330 

Alexandria 
founded    280 

Great     .  336-323 

Strabo 

Pyrrhon      .     .    c.  330 

Euclid 

Battle  of  Issus   333 

C.  63  B.C.-f  .  24  A.D. 

systematizes 

Alexandria 

geometry 

founded      .     330 

c.  250 

Ptolemy  I 

(Soter)     322-285 

First  invasion  of 

Greece  by 

Gauls     .     .     279 

Ptolemy  III  (Euer- 

getes)    .  247-222 

Agis  (Sparta) 

r.  244-240 

Cleomenes  (Sparta) 

r.  236-222 

Destruction  of 

Corinth  —  Greece 

a  Roman 

province     .     146 

Egypt  a  Roman 

province   30  A.D. 

Plutarch 

Philo  of  Judea 

Plutarch's  Train 

Imperial  sup- 

C, 46-120  A.D. 

20  B.C.-40  A.D. 

ing  of  Children 

port  for  the 

Lucian 

C.  100  A.D. 

University 

c.  125-c.  192  A.D. 

Lucian's  Teacher 

of  Athens 

of  Orators, 

A.D.  69  79 

A  nacharses,  etc. 

University  of 

Gregory  of 

Athens  sup- 

Nazianzus' 

pressed 

Panegyric      379 

A.D.  529 

CHAPTER   III 

GREEK   EDUCATION.     EDUCATION   AS  PROGRESSIVE 
ADJUSTMENT.    THE   LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION  lies  in  the 
fact  that  here  first  is  found  a  developing  conception  and  standard 
of  life,  consequently  a  conception  of  education  which  enlarges 
through  successive  periods  and  in  which  change  is  tolerated 
and  development  of  the  individual  provided  for.  Growth  or 
modification  in  social  standards  results  from  variation  by 
individuals  from  formulated  customs ;  progress  comes  where 
such  variations  are  not  only  tolerated  but  seized  upon  and 
made  permanent  if  deemed  serviceable.  For  the  first  time, 
then,  in  Greek  education,  is  found  a  type  in  which  the  indi- 
vidual is  neither  unconsciously  nor  consciously  suppressed. 
On  the  contrary,  some  expression  of  individuality  is  thought 
compatible  with,  even  desirable  for,  social  stability  and  wel- 
fare. 

The  problem  of  providing  for  the  individual  such  a  liberty 
of  initiative  and  of  judgment  as  will  produce  progress  under 
a  regime  of  social  order  and  such  an  institutional  organiza- 
tion as  will  secure  consideration  for  the  rights  of  all  and 
hence  secure  stability,  was  first  worked  out  by  the  Greeks. 
This  is  the  problem  of  social  life  or  civil  society,  and  hence 
the  task  of  education.  While  the  Greeks  did  not  solve  this 
completely,  certainly  not  permanently,  they  first  attempted 
it ;  and  the  somewhat  qualified  success  of  modern  times  in 
solving  these  same  problems  may  cause  us  to  be  somewhat 
lenient  in  our  judgment  of  their  tendency  to  emphasize  first 

52 


Greek  Education  53 

the  one  extreme  of  absolutism  or  socialism  and  then  the  other 
of  individualism. 

Political  Development  of  Personality.  —  This  freedom  of 
the  individual  was  first  approached  from  the  political  side. 
The  Greek  city  states  were  the  first  self-governing  communi- 
ties ;  even  their  kings,  as  at  Sparta,  were  under  the  law  as 
much  as  was  the  free  citizen.  Here  the  individual  found  his 
freedom  in  and  through  the  state.  Though  it  is  evident  that 
in  the  earlier  period  the  claims  of  the  state  were  somewhat 
exorbitant  and  oppressive,  there  were  at  least  constant  at- 
tempts to  solve  the  ever  dominant  political  problem  of  all 
modern  times, — the  reconciliation  of  the  interests  of  the  indi- 
vidual with  those  of  the  state.  As  Professor  Butcher  sums 
up  this  service  to  civilization,  "  In  Greece  first  the  idea  of  the 
public  good,  of  the  free  devotion  of  the  citizen  to  the  state,  of 
government  in  the  interest  of  the  governed,  of  the  rights  of 
the  individual,  took  shape."  Education  among  such  a  people 
has,  then,  the  same  function  as  with  ourselves,  and  here  one 
may  see  not  only  the  first,  but  one  of  the  most  successful,  of 
such  attempts. 

Moral  Development  of  Personality.  —  But  political  freedom, 
social  equality,  and  opportunity  for  exercise  of  individual 
initiative  in  social  life,  do  not  satisfy  all  the  requirements  of 
free  personality,  nor  were  they  all  that  the  Greeks  contrib- 
uted. Moral  responsibility  and  moral  freedom,  as  separable 
from  the  legal,  political,  and  social  obligations,  —  though  less 
separable  one  from  another  among  the  Greeks  than  among 
any  other  people,  —  are  quite  as  essential.  The  Greek  mind 
was  preeminently  a  secular  one.  The  priesthood  in  Greece 
was  not  a  dominant  body,  —  was  not  even  a  permanent  class. 
Its  members  were  often  elected,  were  sometimes  women,  and 
frequently  were  returned  into  the  citizen  class.  Its  function 
was  largely  liturgical  and  ceremonial,  and  very  slightly  theo- 
logical and  pedagogical.  It  had  little  to  do  with  the  develop- 
ment of  philosophy,  literature,  science,  and  education,  or  with 


54  History  of  Education 

the  moral  growth  of  the  people.  The  growth  of  the  abstract 
formulation  of  the  moral  sense  with  the  Greeks  came  largely 
with  their  philosophy ;  that  of  the  concrete  embodiment  of 
moral  responsibility  through  the  city  state.  They  sought  for 
law  or  principle  in  the  realm  of  conduct  as  they  did  in  that 
of  nature  and  of  political  relationships;  and  if  their  ethics 
and  morality  found  little  sanction  in  a  religion,  the  former 
reached  a  high  state  of  perfection  in  their  philosophy  and 
the  latter  a  high  degree  of  effectiveness  through  their  city 
state.  One  is  in  turn  amazed  at  the  subservience  of  the 
Greek  as  a  free  individual  to  the  demands  of  the  state  in 
regard  to  many  phases  of  conduct  and  in  the  devotion  of 
his  life's  activities  in  its  service;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
astonished  at  the  freedom  of  expression  of  opinion  and  in 
respect  to  those  phases  of  conduct  that  have  to  do  with 
personal  morality. 

The  difference  in  point  of  view  between  classical  and 
modern  civilization  is  here  irreconcilable.  One  reason  for 
this  difference  is  to  be  seen  in  the  very  great  scope  of  intel- 
lectual freedom  allowed  to  the  Greek.  This  is  in  marked 
contrast  with  the  timidity  and  superstition  of  the  Orient  as 
well  as  with  the  conservatism  of  expression  in  the  modern 
West  where  religious  opinion  seeks  to  control  not  only  conduct 
but  intellectual  and  emotional  life  as  well.  In  respect  to  the 
second  difference,  the  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  the  scope  of  authority  of  the  state  among  the  Greeks 
was  almost  coterminous  with  that  of  conduct,  —  at  least  in 
so  far  as  it  affected  at  all  the  conduct  and  welfare  of  others, 
—  instead  of  being  limited  as  it  is  in  our  Western  civilization. 
Here  the  controlling  laissez  faire  principle  limits  the  authority 
of  the  state  to  that  which  cannot  be  settled  without  great 
violence  by  the  free  play  of  individual  interests.  Approxi- 
mating, then,  the  scope  of  religious  as  well  as  that  of  political 
control,  the  state  of  the  Greeks  offered  to  them  not  only  the 
basis  for  formulating  their  free  personality  in  its  political 


Greek  Education  55 

sxpression,  but  in  its  expression  of  much  of  that  which  to  us 
would  have  to  do  with  religion  and  personal  morality.  Their 
task,  then,  as  a  people,  was  essentially  that  as  conceived  in 
modern  times ;  namely,  the  formulation  of  principles  of  con- 
duct into  which  the  volition  of  the  individual  entered,  and 
through  which  he  rose  to  moral  freedom  by  a  recognition  of 
his  own  moral  responsibility.  Nevertheless  it  must  be  recog- 
nized, as  the  greatest  weakness  of  the  Greek  character,  that 
they  could  not  formulate  an  adequate  sanction  for  such  moral 
principles.  Philosophical  insight  offered  a  sufficient  basis  for 
the  few,  —  but  only  a  few  could  approximate  the  moral  gran- 
deur of  Socrates  and  Plato.  As  the  religious  sentiment  of 
the  multitude  was  not  sufficient,  it  was  from  the  Hebrews 
that  the  modern  world  had  to  derive  this  one  great  element 
of  free  personality,  in  order  to  supplement  and  complete  the 
work  of  the  Greeks. 

Intellectual  Development  of  Personality.  —  It  is  because  of 
one  other  trait,  however,  that  the  Greeks  become  of  supreme 
importance  in  the  history  of  education.  By  the  Greeks  first, 
and  in  the  fullest  manner,  individuality  was  worked  out  on  the 
thought  side.  The  love  of  knowledge  for  knowledge's  sake 
found  here  its  first  devotees ;  inquiry  into  nature,  into  man, 
into  the  natural  and  the  supernatural  here  first  was  dared ; 
here  the  search  for  the  nature  of  reality  began.  Here  first 
knowledge  ceased  to  be  the  handmaiden  of  theology,  and 
inquiry  the  special  privilege  of  the  priesthood.  No  longer 
held  in  check  by  that  repressive  awe  for  the  supernatural  as 
characteristic  of  the  East,  the  Greek  lay  mind  was  possessed 
of  a  curiosity,  ever  penetrating  but  not  irreverent,  and  an 
imagination  ever  free  but  not  inclined  either  on  the  one  hand 
to  irrational  fantasy  or  on  the  other  to  gloomy  mysticism. 
Plato's  phrase  "  Let  us  follow  the  argument  wherever  it 
leads  "  is  as  characteristic  of  the  intellectual  bravery  of  the 
Greeks  as  it  is  foreign  to  the  reverent,  even  superstitious,  qui- 
escence of  the  East.  Hitherto,  as  later  in  the  Middle  Ages 


56  History  of  Education 

knowledge  had  been  the  secret  possession  of  the  priesthood 
and  the  art  of  writing  the  symbol  of  its  authority ;  to  the 
Greek  this  was  the  inheritance  of  the  lay  mind,  into  which 
he  who  would  might  enter.  Not  only  did  writing  become  a 
possession  of  the  many,  but  a  nation  was  developed  that 
determined  by  lot  among  the  city  wards  the  productions  of 
dramas  that  were  to  be  presented  to  popular  audiences,  intel- 
ligent and  critical  enough  to  hiss  a  mispronunciation. 

With  the  absence  of  any  sacerdotal  class  and  with  intelligent 
appreciation  and  inquiry  characteristic  of  the  common  man, 
learning  for  the  first  time  became  a  possible  possession  of  all. 
Even  more  significant,  education  for  the  first  time  fell  into 
the  hands  of  a  class  especially,  or  almost  wholly,  devoted  to 
it.  Naturally,  at  first,  the  educators  are  those  who  have  pos- 
session of  the  knowlege  of  the  written  word,  —  the  poets. 
Later  the  sophists  and  the  philosophers,  the  wise  men  and 
the  lovers  of  wisdom,  become  the  teachers  or  inspirers  of  the 
young  and  the  intellectual  leaders  of  the  old. 

The  application  of  the  intellect  to  every  phase  of  life  was 
the  task  of  the  Greeks ;  it  was  they  who  first  strove  to  live  by 
reason.  This  was  true  of  the  moral  sphere  as  of  all  others, 
and  partly  explains  what  has  been  said  both  of  this  great 
achievement  in  regard  to  the  conception  of  moral  personality 
and  in  regard  to  their  deficiencies  on  the  religious  side.  They 
first  formulated  the  conception  of  man  as  primarily  a  rational 
being.  As  expressed  by  Socrates  when  as  a  people  they 
came  into  full  self-consciousness,  the  duty  imposed  upon  each 
individual  was  "  to  know  himself."  In  his  rational  nature 
each  individual  found  the  sanction  for  determining  his  own 
ends  in  life,  and  in  his  moral  nature  the  conception  of  these 
ends  as  shaped  by  his  own  being.  Through  the  realization 
of  his  own  nature  each  must  work  out  the  things  that  life  is 
to  be  lived  for;  science,  art,  philosophy,  even  religion,  are 
means  to  this  end  and  are  to  be  made  subservient  to  it.  Con- 
ceiving the  rational  ends  in  life  much  more  clearly  than  those 


Greek  Education  57 

which  depend  for  their  realization  upon  the  divine  or  super- 
human, the  Greek  worked  out,  as  men  have  ever  done,  his  own 
conception  of  Deity,  —  not  a  conception  of  perfection,  but  one 
of  idealized,  rationalized  manhood,  of  mere  human  perfection. 
Hence  there  resulted  the  fusion  of  the  intellectual  and  moral 
determinations  of  personality,  similar  to  the  fusion  of  the 
moral  and  political  previously  noted. 

Esthetic  Development  of  Personality.  —  One  further  aspect 
of  the  significance  of  the  Greeks  to  education  in  their  deter- 
mination of  individuality  remains  to  be  mentioned.  We 
have  seen  that  the  Greeks  failed  to  reach  a  satisfactory 
solution  of  the  relation  of  developed  personality  to  the 
demands  of  social  welfare  on  the  religio-ethical  side,  such  as 
is  found  in  the  ideal  personal  realization  of  service,  love, 
self-sacrifice,  furnished  by  Christianity.  But  in  respect  to  the 
aesthetic  development  of  personality,  the  Greeks  have  had  no 
equal.  To  them  first  and  beyond  all  others  was  given  the 
power  of  expressing  a  general  truth  in  concrete  embodiment. 
For  art  is  but  the  embodiment  of  some  truth,  ideal,  or  expe- 
rience, that  has  universal  validity  and  has  been  generalized 
and  then  put  into  a  concrete  individual  form  such  as  can  be 
comprehended  by  all.  It  then  depends  for  interpretation 
rather  upon  the  imagination  than  the  reason  ;  it  becomes  a 
matter  rather  of  appreciation  than  of  logical  understanding. 
This  power  the  Greeks  developed  to  the  highest  degree.  In 
sculpture,  painting,  music,  poetry,  they  created  these  various 
forms  of  expression  which  are  called  the  beautiful.  Even 
prose  felt  this  influence ;  for  with  the  Greeks,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  moderns,  oratory,  history,  and  other  forms 
of  prose  were  not  mere  scientific  products,  but  were  forms  of 
art  under  the  patronage  of  the  Muses. 

We  have  seen  that  the  primitive  man  had  little  power  of 
generalizing;  and  that  the  Oriental,  if  he  possessed  such 
power,  tended  to  leave  truth  in  the  generalized  form,  as  with 
the  Hindu  philosophy,  or  concrete  in  moral  embodiment,  that 


58  History  of  Education 

is,  in  mere  subjective  form,  as  with  the  Hebrew.  The  Greeks, 
on  the  other  hand,  possessed  both  the  power  of  generalization, 
as  is  seen  in  their  science  and  their  philosophy  and  in.  the 
fact  that  the  very  conception  of  law  or  universal  principle 
comes  from  them,  and  the  power  of  making  the  abstract 
concrete  in  all  their  forms  of  art.  The  task  of  the  Greek 
schoolboy  was  largely  to  give  improvised  musical  expression 
as  accompaniment  to  the  recitation  of  the  Homeric  or  other 
poems.  This  task  called  first  for  the  appreciation  of  one 
form  of  art  and  then  for  the  creation  of  another  in  harmony 
with  the  first. 

Meaning  of  Greek  Education.  —  To  summarize,  the  signifi- 
cance of  Greek  education,  then,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  here 
first  is  worked  out  the  conception  of  free  personality  realizing 
itself  through  social  institutions  ;  that  here  is  found  the  ideal 
of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake  and  as  the  right  of  all  instead 
of  the  privilege  of  the  few.  Here  one  finds  the  individual 
constructing  his  ideals  in  life  and  striving  for  self-realization 
under  moral  laws  formulated  by  his  own  rational  processes. 
Here  individuality  is  defined  on  the  aesthetic  side,  and  pos- 
sesses the  power  of  appreciating  the  general  truths  embodied 
in  concrete  form  of  reality,  of  which  the  highest  expression  is 
the  art  of  so  living  as  to  embody  in  the  concrete  the  general 
laws  of  moral  life.  With  the  Greeks,  the  high  ideal  of  expres- 
sion of  individuality  in  the  realm  of  reason  and  the  apprecia- 
tion of  the  beautiful  was  never  to  be  separated  from  life,  — 
from  conduct.  Hear  their  greatest  statesman,  Pericles,  sum 
up  the  ideals  of  Athenian  citizenship  :  "  We  alone  regard  a 
man  who  takes  no  interest  in  public  affairs,  not  as  a  harmless, 
but  as  a  useless  character ;  and  if  few  of  us  are  originators, 
we  are  all  sound  judges  of  policy.  The  great  impediment  to 
action  is,  in  our  opinion,  not  discussion,  but  the  want  of  that 
knowledge  which  is  gained  by  discussion  preparatory  to  action. 
For  we  have  a  peculiar  power  of  thinking  before  we  act  and 
of  acting  too,  whereas  other  men  are  courageous  from  igno- 


Greek  Education  59 

ranee  and  hesitate  upon  reflection,  and  they  are  surely  to  be 
esteemed  the  bravest  spirits  who,  having  the  clearest  sense 
both  of  the  pains  and  pleasures  of  life,  do  not  on  that  account 
shrink  from  danger."  Or  again,  to  quote  a  modern  appreci- 
ation from  Professor  Butcher :  "  Greece  first  took  up  the 
task  of  equipping  man  with  all  that  fits  him  for  civil  life  and 
promotes  his  secular  well-being ;  of  unfolding  and  expanding 
every  inborn  faculty  and  energy,  bodily  and  mental ;  of  striv- 
ing restlessly  after  the  perfection  of  the  whole,  and  finding 
in  this  effort  after  an  unattainable  ideal  that  by  which  man 
becomes  like  to  the  Gods." 

From  yet  another  point  of  view,  the  work  of  the  Greeks 
was  to  determine  the  things  in  this  life  worth  living  for. 
Aristotle  says  that  the  aim  of  life  is  "  living  happily  and 
beautifully."  And  the  best  expressions  of  their  civilization 
give  us  this  knowledge,  or  at  least  indicate  to  us  their  reali- 
zation of  this  high  ideal.  Add  to  this  the  one  great  element 
since  added  to  civilization  through  the  Christian  religion  and 
the  ideal  now  formulated  for  our  life  and  for  our  educa- 
tional process  is  but  slightly  more  advanced.  Of  this  list  — 
political  freedom,  intellectual  freedom  and  attainment,  moral 
freedom  and  life,  aesthetic  appreciation,  and  power  of  accom- 
plishment—  we  have  made  but  one  great  change,  that  of 
substituting  material  achievement  for  the  aesthetic  expression 
of  personality ;  and  this  is  a  change  that  is  not  an  unmiti- 
gated blessing  nor  an  unqualified  advance. 

Since  the  aim  of  education,  as  limited  in  the  work  of  our 
schools  to-day,  must  eliminate  the  religious  element,  it  can 
find  no  higher  purpose  than  that  of  determining  for  each 
individual  the  things  in  this  life  that  are  best  worth  living 
for.  Consequently  no  phase  of  educational  history  other 
than  that  of  the  Greek  has  more  significance  for  the  student 
or  will  better  repay  consideration  of  the  means  and  methods 
adopted  for  securing  these  ends. 

Limitations  in  Realization.  —  While   it   is   true   that  the 


6o  History  of  Education 

Greeks  formulated  the  problems  of  life  and  of  education  and 
stated  their  solution  much  as  we  would  do  now,  yet  we  can- 
not believe  that  the  Greeks  worked  out  in  the  concrete  all 
that  is  worth  living  for,  else  we  should  at  this  point  reach  the 
culmination  of  that  evolutionary  process,  the  survey  of  which 
we  have  just  begun.  If  so  our  education,  as  with  the  Orien- 
tal, would  need  but  be  a  recapitulation  of  the  past  and  an 
attempt  to  recover  what  the  Greeks  gained.  Yet  in  their 
ideals  elements  were  missing.  In  their  attempts  at  realiza- 
tion as  yet  in  our  own,  there  were  shortcomings.  While  we 
yet  fail  to  realize  a  portion  of  that  which  they  realized,  time 
has  added  some  elements  to  that  which  they  held  worth  liv- 
ing for,  and  modern  times  have  broadened  immensely  the 
scope  of  that  which  they  held  to  be  but  for  the  few.  In 
respect  to  womankind,  the  Greek  view  was  practically  Orien- 
tal ;  in  respect  to  the  future  life,  their  idea  was  but  little 
beyond  that  of  primitive  man  ;  in  respect  to  the  masses  of 
mankind,  even  of  their  own  race,  they  had  not  moved  much 
beyond  the  despotic  nations  of  the  East,  for  nine  of  every 
ten  Greeks  were  denied  these  high  privileges  of  the  free 
man.  Then,  too,  in  their  concrete  realization  of  their  ideals 
there  was  much  that  is  repellent  to  modern  thought  and 
morality.  With  their  Oriental  attitude  toward  womankind 
and  toward  the  great  masses  of  slaves  and  serfs ;  with  the 
absence  of  all  thought  of  the  gods  or  of  the  future  life  as 
having  to  do  with  either  motive  for  or  outcome  of  conduct  in 
this  life,  there  could  not  but  be  very  much  in  their  lives  for- 
eign to  our  very  conception  of  morality.  Moreover,  their 
versatility  borders  on  the  insincere,  even  the  dishonest, 
while  their  light-heartedness  often  becomes  frivolity  and 
licentiousness.  Their  keenness  in  thought  leads  in  time  to  a 
disingenuous  discussion  of  terms  and  a  hair-splitting  logical 
activity  as  a  substitute  for  a  higher  intellectual  life;  while 
this  keen  appreciation  of  the  excellence  of  forms  leads  to 
mere  talkativeness  and  rhetorical  show  Even  their  control 


Greek  Education  61 

of  life  by  reason  became  in  common  practice  both  in  Homeric 
and  in  later  periods  a  control  largely  in  the  sense  of  prudence. 
There  is  often  an  entire  absence  of  the  sense  of  honor,  of 
honesty,  and  of  loyalty.  The  sense  of  compassion  was  hardly 
developed,  as  indeed  it  could  not  be  when  slavery  prevailed 
to  such  a  degree,  when  women  held  the  position  they  did, 
and  when  there  did  not  exist  the  mitigating  effects  of  a  reli- 
gion emphasizing  moral  conduct  in  life  and  rewards  and 
punishments  therefor  after  death.  At  Athens,  even  the 
reverence  of  the  Spartan  for  old  age  seems  to  have  been 
more  honored  in  the  applause  for  the  act  than  in  the  obser- 
vance. The  universal  practice  of  "  exposing  "  undesirable 
children,  sanctioned  not  only  by  common  practices  but  by 
their  greatest  moralists,  argues  a  callousness  to  suffering  and 
to  the  claims  of  the  helpless  that  is  almost  inconceivable,  and 
at  the  same  time  an  inability  to  grasp  the  thought  of  person- 
ality with  its  inalienable  rights  as  viewed  by  the  Christian 
world. 

Greek  Education  as  a  Development.  — The  great  significance 
of  Greek  education,  however,  lies  in  the  fundamental  charac- 
teristics previously  enumerated.  These,  however,  were  not 
reached,  even  in  their  formulation,  at  once,  and  many  of  the 
defects  enumerated  were  outcomes  of  later  stages  of  growth. 
It  becomes,  then,  of  great  importance  to  note  the  steps  of  the 
process  in  the  formulation  of  these  ideals  and  in  the  character 
of  their  practical  realization.  This  progress  is  through 
definitely  recognizable  stages,  each  with  its  appropriate  for- 
mulation of  educational  ends,  means,  and  methods.  It  is  in 
the  tracing  of  this  process,  as  well  as  in  the  analysis  of  the 
conditions  actually  attained  that  there  lies  the  value  of  this 
study  for  guidance  in  our  own  educational  activities. 

PERIODS  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION. —The  generally  recog- 
nized division  of  Greek  education  is  that  into  The  Old  and  The 
New,  with  the  division  point  at  the  Periclean  age  or  the  middle 


62  History  of  Education 

of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  Based  primarily  upon  the  political 
periods  of  Greek  history,  this  classification  finds  further 
justification  in  social, moral,  literary, and  philosophical  changes, 
as  well  as  in  those  relating  to  educational  ideals  and  practices. 
Such  a  general  division  hardly  suffices,  however,  to  trace  the 
educational  development  along  the  lines  previously  indicated. 
The  Old  Greek  education  of  the  historic  period  is  preceded 
by  the  education  of  the  primitive  and  Homeric  times,  of  the 
character  of  which  much  evidence  can  be  drawn  from  the 
Homeric  poems.  This  "  heroic  period "  is  succeeded  by 
the  historic  period  of  the  Old  Greek  education  which  devel- 
oped along  two  quite  diverse  lines,  best  typified  by  Sparta 
and  Athens. 

The  New  Greek  period  includes,  first,  the  period  of  transi- 
tion in  educational,  religious,  and  moral  ideas  during  and 
following  the  Age  of  Pericles.  This  is  the  period  in  which 
the  new  philosophical  thought  was  developed,  and  the  new 
educational  practices  were  shaped.  The  second  of  these 
periods  includes  from  the  Macedonian  conquest  toward  the 
close  of  the  fourth  century  B.C.,  until  Greek  culture  is 
thoroughly  fused  with  Roman  life.  By  the  time  of  the  open- 
ing of  this  last  period,  the  philosophical  schools  have  been 
definitely  formulated  and  during  the  period  are  organized 
into  the  University  of  Athens.  In  her  intellectual  life  Greece 
now  becomes  cosmopolitan  and  ceases  to  have  distinctive 
characteristics  aside  from  the  philosophical  schools. 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  HOMERIC  PERIOD.— While  it 

contained  the  germs  of  all  the  higher  development,  it  was  yet 
fundamentally,  in  regard  to  its  form  and  in  much  of  its  con- 
tent, that  of  a  primitive  people.  It  was  an  education  that 
consisted  essentially  in  a  training  in  definite  practical  activi- 
ties w'th  no  place  for  instruction  of  a  literary  character. 
Though  noble  youths  are  spoken  of  as  having  received  in- 
struction  in  arms  and  martial  exercises,,  and  Achilles  as 


Greek  Education  63 

having  had  instruction  in  music,  in  the  healing  art,  and  even 
in  rhetoric,  this  instruction  amounted  to  little  more  than  a 
training  by  imitation,  into  which  entered  no  instruction,  as 
that  process  was  understood  later  by  the  Greeks.  The  train- 
ing for  the  humbler  needs  of  life  —  those  connected  with 
the  satisfaction  of  the  needs  for  food,  clothing,  and  shelter  — 
was  given  in  the  home.  That  for  the  higher  duties  of  life, 
for  the  more  general  public  service,  was  received  in  the 
council,  in  wars,  and  in  marauding  expeditions. 

The  Twofold  Ideal.  —  The  ideal  of  this  education  was 
simple,  yet  contained  the  germs  of  that  of  the  later  historic 
periods.  It  included  the  twofold  ideal  of  the  man  of  wisdom 
and  the  man  of  action  ;  the  former  typified  by  Odysseus,  the 
latter  by  Achilles.  Yet  while  these  ideals  were  developed 
most  highly  in  these  separate  types,  the  ideals  themselves 
were  not  separable,  but  were  to  be  attained  by  each  free 
Greek.  The  description  of  Achilles's  education,  referred  to 
in  the  preceding  paragraph,  makes  this  distinct  for  the  one 
type.  Phoenix  says  of  this  education  :  — 

"  In  all  which  I  was  set  by  him  to  instruct  thee  as  my  son, 
That  thou  mightst  speak,  when  speech  was  fit,  and  do  when  deeds  were 

done; 
Not  sit  as  dumb  for  want  of  words  ;  idle,  for  skill  to  move." 

By  comparison  of  this  with  the  brief  excerpt  from  the 
speech  of  Pericles  by  Thucydides  given  in  a  previous  section, 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  foundation  of  their  educational  ideals  at 
the  acme  of  Athenian  splendor  had  not  changed ;  and,  as  we 
shall  further  see  in  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle,  this  union  of 
thought  and  conduct,  in  a  life  of  action  guided  by  reason, 
remains  the  ideal  in  the  highest  formulation  during  the 
philosophical  stage. 

Ideal  of  Man  of  Action.  —  During  all  the  early,  or  pre- 
historic period,  this  conception  of  the  trained  or  educated 
man  is  formulated  only  in  a  minor  way  from  the  point  of 


64  History  of  Education 

view  of  the  individual ;  it  is  determined  most  largely  with 
respect  to  the  welfare  of  the  group.  The  primary  virtue  of 
the  man  of  action  —  the  warrior  —  is  that  of  bravery.  At 
the  same  time  their  conception  of  courage  is  not  at  all  that  of 
modern  times,  or  that  of  the  chivalric  period.  The  chiefs  of 
the  Iliad  gave  way  to  flight  on  very  numerous  occasions ; 
those  that  entered  into  the  wooden  horse  "  wiped  tears  from 
their  eyes,  and  the  limbs  of  each  trembled  beneath  him." 
Similar  expressions  of  what  in  later  ages  would  be  termed 
cowardice,  though  then  considered  as  a  feeling  attributable  to 
the  gods,  are  related  of  Odysseus  and  most  of  the  other 
leaders.  So  far  as  there  can  be  given  an  explanation  of  such 
action  as  consistent  with  the  high  ideal  of  courage,  it  may  be 
ascribed  to  the  fact  that  their  valor  was  for  the  service  of 
the  state  or  of  their  kings.  Phis  made  permissible  or  even 
demanded  a  large  admixture  of  caution  and  of  the  discretion 
that  "might  live  to  fight  another  day,"  which  would  be  want- 
ing if  the  standard  of  bravery  was  absolutely  fixed  in  the 
attitude  and  action  of  the  individual  without  reference  to  its 
general  object.  We  must  note  one  other  virtue  in  the  ideal  of 
the  man  of  action,  —  a  virtue  which  partially  explains  this 
somewhat  anomalous  character  of  their  bravery,  though  it 
finds  expression  not  only  in  battle  but  in  every  activity  of 
life.  It  is  that  of  reverence.  The  man  who  had  no  fear, 
like  the  man  who  had  no  shame  in  his  dealings  with  his 
companions,  or  was  insolent  in  his  attitude  towards  the  gods 
or  his  elders,  was  guilty  of  irreverence — that  is,  of  a  lack  of 
proper  balance  in  his  actions.  That  the  Greeks  were  far 
more  sensitive  to  fine  distinctions  of  all  kinds  than  any  other 
people  has  been  pointed  out  by  almost  every  student  of  their 
literature  and  life.1  Consequently  not  only  in  music,  in 
sculpture,  in  architecture,  rhythm,  and  metre,  but  also  in 
regard  to  physical  pain  and  matters  of  conduct,  a  proportion 
or  harmony, — an  avoidance  of  extremes,  —  the  attainment 

1  E.g.  Mahaffy,  Social  Life  in  Greece,  pp.  25  et  seq. 


Greek  Education  65 

to  the  proper  medium  was  the  ideal.  Though  in  a  some- 
what idealized  form,  if  we  take  into  consideration  those 
moral  shortcomings  of  the  Greeks  that  have  been  men- 
tioned, Mr.  Gladstone  describes  this  characteristic  in  the  fol- 
lowing words :  — 

"  The  noblest  of  all  the  ethical  implications  of  Homer's  poems 
is  to  be  found  in  the  notable  and  comprehensive  word  Aides. 
It  refuses  to  be  translated  by  any  single  term  of  English  or 
any  other  modern  language  ;  indeed  I  doubt  whether  it  had  not 
abated  much  of  its  force  in  the  classical  age  of  Greece.  It 
means  shame,  but  never  false  shame  ;  it  means  honor,  but  never 
the  base-born  thing  in  these  days  called  prestige.  It  means 
duty,  but  duty  shaped  with  a  peculiar  grace.  It  means 
reverence,  and  this  without  doubt  is  its  chief  element.  It 
means  chivalry,  and  though  this  word  cannot  be  given  a  good 
technical  translation,  it  is  perhaps  nearer  in  pith  and  marrow 
to  the  Homeric  Aidos,  than  any  other  word  we  know.  But 
Aidos  excels  it  in  expressing  the  faculty  of  the  mental  eye 
turned  ever  inward.  Aidos  is  based  upon  a  true  self-respect, 
upon  an  ever  living  consciousness  of  the  nature  that  we  have 
and  the  obligations  that  we  owe  to  its  laws.  There  is  no  sin 
that  a  human  being  can  commit,  withoutsinning  against  Aidos. " 

Ideal  of  Man  of  Wisdom.  —  Turning  to  the  other  side  of 
the  educational  ideal,  that  of  the  man  of  counsel,  or  wisdom, 
here  again  the  virtues  were  dominantly  social  in  their  char- 
acter. The  chief  element  in  this  ideal  was  that  of  good  prac- 
tical judgment — not  merely  good  judgment  in  advancing  one's 
own  material  welfare,  but  good  judgment  in  the  advice  of 
one's  fellows,  in  the  service  of  the  tribe  or  the  community. 
The  social  point  of  view  also  in  part  accounts  for  the  fact  that 
into  this  ideal  of  practical  wisdom  there  entered  much  of 
craftiness,  —  even  of  deceit,  —  which,  since  primarily  for  the 
common  good,  was  permissible.  Yet  it  is  true  that  in  later 
periods,  even  in  private  life,  this  virtue  of  good  practical 
judgment  tolerated  extremes  of  conduct  in  deceit  and  lack 
of  strict  regard  for  truth,  that  even  the  present  materialistic, 
y 


66  History  of  Education 

commercial  age  does  not.  The  other  side  of  this  ideal  of 
wisdom  was  the  Greek  whole-mindedness.  In  order  that  good 
judgment  be  exercised  it  was  necessary  that  the  desires  and 
passions  be  brought  under  control.  This  control  of  the  appe- 
tites by  reason  is  the  temperance  or  whole-mindedness  of  the 
man  of  wisdom ;  it  is  the  balance  or  harmony  in  thought  that 
corresponds  to  the  balance  in  action  demanded  by  their  ideal 
of  reverence. 

Social  and  Individual  Elements  in  these  Ideals.  —  Now 
while  these  ideals  both  of  wisdom  and  of  action  were  domi- 
nantly  social,  yet  large  scope  for  individuality  was  provided 
for  and  the  attainment  of  these  ideals,  especially  in  the  aspects 
of  reverence  and  whole-mindedness  or  free  moral  personality, 
was  made  more  definite  and  brought  into  far  higher  relief 
than  in  the  primitive  stages  of  civilization  of  any  other  people 
unless  it  be  the  Hebrews.  The  Homeric  poems  are  an  evi- 
dence of  this.  It  is  when  one  considers  the  chief  formal 
means  adopted  to  attain  these  ideals  that  the  emphasis  upon 
individuality  appears  most  distinctly.  The  center  ot  Greek 
life  as  described  in  the  Homeric  poems  was  in  the  council. 
It  was  through  the  council  that  good  practical  judgment 
revealed  itself  and  action  was  stimulated  and  determined 
upon.  Through  discussion  good  judgment  was  developed 
and  temperance —  the  control  of  the  passions  —  was  acquired. 
The  council  became  both  the  means  for  directing  their  social, 
political,  and  military  life,  and  at  the  same  time  the  chief  insti- 
tution for  educational  ends.  While  action  must  be  wholly 
subordinated  to  the  state,  it  was  only  after  free  expression  of 
opinion.  Action  must  be  social,  but  psychologically  —  on  the 
side  of  motive  and  opinion  —  the  individual  became  well  de- 
fined. Here  is  discovered  the  means  in  the  fundamental 
social  institution  through  which  individuality  was  developed. 
Custom  still  ruled  as  with  all  primitive  people  ;  but  it  is 
custom  passed  through  the  medium  of  discussion,  modified 
by  individual  experience,  until  it  justifies  itself  in  the  wisdorr 


Greek  Education  67 

of  the  group.  Sine  e  it  was  a  fundamental  principle  with  the 
Greeks,  as  with  no  other  people,  that  custom  must  be  reason- 
able, custom  became  modifiable  through  the  rational  experi- 
ence of  the  individual.  The  individual  accepts  as  his  guide 
to  conduct,  customs  or  principles  of  action,  into  which  his  own 
judgment  and  experience  enter  in  a  more  or  less  conscious 
way. 

Hence,  while  the  scope  of  the  educational  ideal  was  not 
yet  broad,  and  the  definition  of  individuality  was  not  yet 
clear,  here  at  least  were  found  the  basis  and  the  means  for  all 
that  future  development  which  is  now  to  be  traced.  That 
the  basal  ideas  of  all  subsequent  development  are  to  be  found 
in  the  Homeric  poems  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  these 
poems  formed  the  content  of  their  intellectual  discipline 
when  education  was  formally  organized  into  schools,  and 
filled  as  well  the  function  of  a  sacred  literature  with  other 
peoples.  Professor  J ebb  sums  this  up  when  he  says:  "The 
Homeric  poems  were  simple  and  strong  enough  to  be  popular 
early,  and  mature  enough  in  art  to  please  an  age  of  ripe 
culture.  Boys  learned  Homer  by  heart  at  school,  priests 
quoted  him  touching  the  gods,  moralists  went  to  him  for 
maxims,  statesmen  for  argument,  cities  for  claims  to  territory 
or  alliance,  noble  houses  for  the  title-deeds  of  their  fame." 

OLD  GREEK  EDUCATION  was  determined  in  its  character 
and  its  organization  by  the  dominant  social  institution,  the 
city  state.  This  institution,  as  the  outgrowth  of  the  tribe  and 
Council  of  the  Homeric  period,  furnished  the  ideals  and  the 
basis  of  education,  as  did  the  family  with  the  Chinese  and 
the  theocracy  with  the  Hebrews.  While  there  are  evidences 
that  it  was  taking  shape  in  the  Homeric  period  (Iliad  XVIII, 
409),  it  appears  full  fledged  only  at  the  opening  of  the  historic 
period.  The  city  state  grew  up  by  successive  amalgamations: 
patriarchal  families  grew  into  village  ccmmunities,  village 
communities  into  phratries  or  brotherhoods,  phratries  into 


68  History  of  Education 

tribes,  and  tribes  into  the  city  state.  The  bond  that  held  the 
family  together  was  chiefly  that  of  blood  relationship.  The 
village  community  depended  upon  economic  interests  as  well 
as  the  blood  tie  ;  the  phratries  upon  religious  ties  ;  the  tribe 
upon  the  communal  ownership  of  land.  So,  too,  the  city 
state,  in  its  beginnings  as  a  union  of  tribes,  was  held  together 
by  this  descent  from  the  old  families  and  the  possession  of 
land. 

Duties  of  a  Greek  Citizen.  —  To  the  virtues  demanded  of 
the  free  Greeks  in  the  Homeric  period  was  now  added,  in  the 
historic  period,  the  new  element  of  property.  This,  with 
their  descent  from  the  noble  families,  constituted  the  "  an- 
cient wealth  and  worth  "  of  the  Aristotelian  phrase.  Though 
confined  at  first  to  the  heads  of  the  noble  families,  the  scope 
of  this  ideal  of  nobility  or  of  worth  was  expanded  until  it 
included  all  freemen,  as  by  degrees  these  were  admitted  into 
full  citizenship.  With  the  development  of  the  basal  social 
organization  from  family  group,  through  tribe,  to  city  state, 
there  had  gone  on  an  expansion  of  the  conception  of  virtue 
or  worth.  Each  particular  stage  of  development  continued 
as  a  permanent  relationship  and  demanded  its  appropriate 
obligations  beyond  those  of  the  Homeric  ideal,  "  the  speaker 
of  words  and  the  doer  of  deeds."  As  the  head  of  a  family, 
the  Greek  citizen  had  to  perform  the  duties  of  a  husband,  a 
father,  a  priest,  an  owner  of  slaves  ;  as  a  member  of  the  vil- 
lage community,  he  added  to  these  the  duties  connected  with 
property,  communal  and  family,  and  the  elementary  duties 
of  government ;  as  a  member  of  a  phratry,  he  added  to  these, 
duties  of  a  religious  character ;  as  a  member  of  a  tribe,  duties 
of  a  military  and  political  character  ;  while  with  the  forma- 
tion of  the  city  state  he  added  an  expanding  group  of  obliga- 
tions administrative  and  judicial,  and  of  greatest  significance 
of  all,  those  of  a  wholly  new  character  now  to  be  noted. 

Worth  and  Virtue  as  the  Aim  of  Education.  —  Through  all 
of  this  growth,  the  virtue  or  nobility  of  a  citizen,  while  condi- 


Greek  Education  69 

aoned  by  his  birth  and  possession  of  property,  consists  in  his 
worth  to  the  state.  There  is  as  yet  no  distinction  between 
individual  and  civic  worth.  Now,  with  the  formation  of 
groups  of  citizens  with  permanent  abodes,  in  conflict  with 
similar  groups,  and  governed  by  a  nobility  sharply  distin- 
guished from  the  masses,  the  worth  of  a  citizen  to  the  state 
takes  on  an  entirely  new  character.  Supremacy  is  now  to  be 
maintained  more  largely  by  a  superiority  in  intelligence,  in 
moral  judgment,  and  in  such  an  appreciation  of  the  finer 
aspects  of  life  as  would  distinguish  him  from  the  base-born 
multitude.  Thus  it  happened  that  in  the  Greek  city  states, 
especially  among  the  Ionian  race,  there  was  evolved  for  the 
leisure  class  an  ideal  of  worth  or  nobility  more  largely  spir- 
itual than  had  previously  been  attained.  According  to  this 
ideal,  service  to  the  state  and  superiority  to  the  barbarians 
and  the  low-born  can  be  shown  only  by  attainment  in  those 
interests  in  life  which  the  Greeks  considered  under  the 
peculiar  protection  of  the  Muses — the  fine  arts,  the  sciences, 
and  philosophy.  Nobility  now  becomes  worth  or  virtue  in 
the  spiritual  sense  as  well  as  in  the  more  practical  material 
sense.  Ancient  wealth  and  worth  in  the  sense  of  property 
and  birth  are  now  considered  not  so  much  the  essential 
elements  of  nobility  as  presuppositions  to  the  more  spiritual- 
ized forms  of  wealth  and  worth.  As  Aristotle  expresses  the 
contrast,  the  aim  of  tribal  and  village  organization  is  mere 
living,  that  of  the  city  state  is  the  good  life.  Worth  in  this 
sense  can  be  attained,  and  it  can  be  lost ;  and  at  all  times  is 
to  be  maintained  by  a  striving  that  not  only  is  of  service  to 
the  state,  but  produces  with  it>  as  the  essential  feature  of  the 
process,  the  development  of  free  and  clearly  defined  person- 
ality. This  conception  of  nobility  or  worth  is  the  bond  which 
holds  the  city  state  together,  gives  it  its  superiority,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  becomes  the  ideal  attainable  in  the  life  of 
every  individual.  To  produce  this  worth  becomes  the  aim 
of  education,  whether  viewed  by  the  state  after  its  interests, 


70  History  of  Education 

or  by  the  individual  according  to  his  interests,  though  to  the 
Greek  in  the  "old"  period  these  were  indistinguishable.  How- 
ever, it  must  be  admitted  as  the  fundamental  characteristic 
of  the  old  education,  that  they  were  indistinguishable  because 
the  worth  to  the  state  continued  throughout  to  be  dominant, 
and  that  in  this  worth  the  military  and  practical  political 
services  were  yet  of  major  importance. 

Spartan  Education  reveals  the  old  Greek  education  in  its 
most  pronounced  form.  Here  there  was  no  change  from  the 
earliest  clear  formulation  of  these  ideals,  and  no  change  in 
practice  save  by  way  of  decline.  In  fact,  after  the  definite 
formulation  of  this  ideal  in  the  constitution  of  Lycurgus, 
during  the  ninth  century  B.C.,  there  was  no  more  change  in 
their  ideal  than  in  that  of  the  Oriental  type  of  education. 
This  characteristic  furnishes  one  of  the  evidences  of  the 
relationship  of  the  early  Greeks  with  Semitic  and  Hamitic 
influences.  But  if  in  society  as  constituted  at  Sparta  there 
was  no  opportunity  for  the  evolution  of  a  higher  lype,  there 
yet  remained  some  scope  for  individuality  since  the  code  of 
Lycurgus  was  rather  one  of  principle  than  one  of  precept,  as 
was  the  case  with  the  Oriental. 

Influence  of  Natural  and  Social  Environment  on  Character 
of  Spartan  Education.  —  This  complete  dominance  of  the 
state  over  the  individual,  secured  through  a  system  of  laws 
which  furnished  at  the  same  time  the  core  of  their  educa- 
tional procedure  and  the  structural  frame  of  their  society,  is 
explained  by  the  peculiar  environment  and  historical  setting 
of  the  Lacedaemonian  nation.  The  Dorian  Greeks,  including 
the  Cretans  and  Spartans,  representing  as  they  did  the  earli- 
est form  of  Greek  culture  in  the  historic  period,  replaced  or 
conquered  at  about  the  Homeric  period  an  earlier  branch  of 
the  Hellenes,  then  in  the  primitive  stage  of  culture.  These 
Dorians  had  settled  in  the  Peloponnesus  as  early  as  the 
eleventh  century  B.C.,  where,  before  the  time  of  Lycurgus, 
Sparta  had  had  some  centuries  of  history  of  which  we  know 


Greek  Education  71 

as  little  as  of  that  of  the  Ionian  Greeks  previous  to  the  first 
Olympiad.  Owing  to  the  constant  danger  of  insurrection 
from  the  conquered  tribes  and  of  attacks  from  external 
sources,  Sparta  was  little  more  than  an  organized  garrison 
governed  by  the  general  customs  of  the  Dorian  Greeks  or  by 
those  more  highly  developed  borrowed  from  their  Cretan 
kinsmen.  This  condition,  precarious  enough  on  account  of 
constant  warfare,  was  rendered  even  more  unstable  by  the 
tendency  of  the  Spartans,  with  the  greater  permanency  of 
abode,  to  neglect  their  military  training.  Their  peculiar  system 
of  double  monarchy,  which  lacked  the  strength  either  of  an 
absolutism  or  of  an  aristocratic  democracy  such  as  the  various 
Grecian  states  later  developed,  had  a  similar  influence.  The 
insecurity  of  their  position  was  made  more  evident  by  the 
gradual  disappearance  through  conquest  of  kindred  branches 
of  the  Dorians  —  the  Messenians  and  Argives  —  situated  as 
were  the  Spartans,  and  by  the  growing  laxity  of  behavior 
and  indolence  of  the  people.  At  the  time  of  the  formulation 
of  their  customs  into  the  constitution  there  were  but  nine 
thousand  Spartan  families  in  the  midst  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  subject  people.  Since  many  of  the  free  Spartan  fam- 
ilies disappeared  during  the  latter  centuries  of  their  history, 
while  the  Perioeci  and  Helots  increased,  this  disproportion 
tended  to  increase.  With  the  decline  of  the  monarchical  power 
which  had  grown  up  out  of  the  early  tribal  organization  of  the 
Greeks,  it  was  often  customary,  as  in  the  well-known  instances 
at  Athens  of  Solon  and  Clisthenes,  for  a  state  to  call  upon 
some  able  citizen  to  reform  their  constitution  in  order  to  give 
them  a  more  stable  organization,  by  providing  for  a  wider 
participation  of  the  citizens  in  public  affairs.  About  the 
middle  of  the  ninth  century  B.C.,  the  Spartans  had  resort  to 
this  custom  and  called  upon  Lycurgus  to  draft  a  new  consti- 
tution. It  is  not  supposed  that  these  laws  were  formulated 
de  novo  by  Lycurgus ;  rather,  that  he  recognized  and 
strengthened  old  customs  and  at  the  same  time  introduced 


72  History  of  Education 

some  new  ones,  especially  those  of  an  educational  sort,  from 
the  related  Cretans.  This  system  of  law  or  of  education  — 
since  it  was  little  else  than  a  scheme  for  the  training  of  the 
younger  generation  by  the  older,  all  of  whom  were  compelled 
to  devote  much  of  their  time  to  it  —  remained  in  force  without 
modification  until  near  the  time  of  the  Macedonian  conquest, 
and  though  it  then  began  to  decline,  it  yet  remained  operative 
until  the  second  century  B.C.  After  this  time  its  vigor  much 
abated  and  only  the  remnants  of  form  were  left.  The  details 
of  this  system  have  been  most  fully  presented  by  Plutarch, 
who  is  corroborated  in  the  main  points  by  Xenophon  and 
Aristotle.  On  ~ome  points  relative  to  government  and  to  the 
economic  distrioution  of  land  and  property,  Plutarch  is  now 
thought  to  have  been  led  astray  by  the  reforms  introduced  in 
the  third  century  by  Agis  and  Cleomenes. 

A  im  of  Spartan  Education. —  Determined  by  the  purpose 
of  this  constitution,  which  sought  to  give  the  Lacedaemonian 
kingdom  perfect  self-sufficiency  economically,  intellectually, 
and  socially,  and  complete  independence  in  political  affairs 
through  unequaled  military  power,  the  aim  of  education  was 
to  give  each  individual  such  physical  perfection,  courage,  and 
habits  of  complete  obedience  to  the  laws  that  he  should  make 
the  ideal  soldier,  unsurpassed  in  bravery  and  become  one  in 
whom  the  individual  was  sunk  in  the  citizen.  "  There  is  one 
point,"  said  Aristotle,  "  in  which  the  Lacedaemonians  deserve 
great  praise  ;  they  devote  much  attention  to  the  education  of 
their  children,  and  their  attention  takes  the  form  of  action  on 
the  part  of  the  state."  Successful  beyond  any  other  scheme 
of  extreme  paternalistic  education  upon  the  part  of  the  gov- 
ernment, the  Spartan  state  possessed  a  stability  and  a  record 
of  military  achievement  unequaled  by  any  other  Greek  state  ; 
the  Spartan  man,  a  bravery,  power,  endurance,  and  self-con- 
trol that  was  often  wanting,  sometimes  conspicuously  so,  in 
the  other  Greeks ;  the  Spartan  woman,  a  dignity,  a  scope  for 
activity  in  life  and  an  ability  to  meet  these  opportunities  that 


Greek  Education  73 

was  denied,  save  in  the  early  period,  to  women  in  other  parts 
of  Greece ;  and  the  Spartan  youth,  a  reverential  and  obedi- 
ent demeanor,  a  reserve  in  conduct,  a  stoicism  under  pain  and 
habits  of  obedience  that  were  possessed  to  a  far  less  degree 
by  other  Greek  boys.  The  reverse  of  the  picture  shows 
many  defects.  While  the  Spartans  possessed  a  keen  sense  of 
humor,  and  while  much  of  simple  pleasure  entered  into 
their  active  life,  there  was  but  little  place  in  their  ideal  for  the 
"  living  beautifully  and  happily  "  of  the  Athenians.  There 
was  a  lack  of  the  finer  sentiments  and  of  Athenian  sensitive- 
ness to  harmony  in  conduct  and  especially  to  the  amenities 
of  life  or  to  its  cultural  aspect.  There  was  wanting  a  sense 
of  sympathy,  of  interest,  and  of  fellowship  for  others  that 
isolation  preserved  long  after  this  narrowness  had  tended  to 
disappear  among  the  other  Grecians.  While  the  Spartan 
was  trained  to  be  self-dependent  when  it  came  to  personal 
conflict  and  personal  needs,  the  definition  of  individuality  on 
the  moral  side  did  not  proceed  far,  because  there  was  ever  a 
complete  subservience  to  the  iaw ;  and  history  shows  that 
whenever  the  Spartan  was  removed  from  under  the  compul- 
sion of  that  law  and  the  pressure  exerted  by  the  opinions  of 
his  fellows,  his  moral  character  revealed  itself  as  insufficiently 
developed.  In  the  intellectual  and  aesthetic  aspects  of  life 
individuality  was  scarcely  defined  or  developed  at  all.  And 
finally  they  did  not  participate  to  any  extent  in  the  great 
artistic,  literary,  and  philosophical  development  which  was  the 
glory  of  Athens. 

Organization  of  Spartan  Education.  —  The  concrete  derails 
of  the  Spartan  system  of  education  will  well  repay  study  both 
because  it  is  efficient  through  so  long  a  period  and  because 
it  is  the  only  example  in  history  of  an  education  that  relates 
to  every  aspect  of  moral  character  and  of  social  life  in  the 
hands  of  a  socialistic  state  that  controlled  absolutely  every 
phase  of  the  life  of  its  citizens. 

The  Spartan  state,  which  after  Lycurgus  was  governed  by 


74  History  of  Education 

an  aristocratic  senate  and  a  democratic  assembly  composed  ot 
all  free  men,  appointed  a  general  superintendent  of  education 
—  \bepadonomus  —  and  assistants.  After  a  hardy  training 
of  seven  years  of  infancy,  during  which  time  the  boy  was  in 
the  direct  care  of  his  mother,  he  was  taken  from  the  home 
and  put  under  the  charge  of  the  assistants  to  the  paedonomus. 
These  cared  for  him  in  public  barracks  at  state  expense. 
The  boys  were  here  divided  into  successively  smaller  groups 
under  charge  of  leaders  chosen  from  older  groups  of  boys. 
Of  those  under  twelve,  Plutarch  tells  us  that  in  their  exercises, 
"  He  who  showed  the  most  conduct  and  courage  amongst 
them  was  made  captain  of  the  company.  The  rest  kept  their 
eyes  upon  him,  obeyed  his  orders,  and  bore  with  patience  all 
the  punishments  he  inflicted ;  so  his  whole  education  was  an 
exercise  in  obedience."  This  training  was  always  under  the 
supervision  of  the  elders.  Of  the  boys  over  twelve,  "  the  most 
distinguished  among  them  became  the  favorite  companions  of 
the  elder ;  and  the  old  men  attended  most  constantly  their 
places  of  exercise,  observing  their  trials  of  strength  and 
wit,  not  slightingly  and  in  a  cursory  manner,  but  as  their 
fathers,  guardians,  governors ;  so  that  there  was  neither 
time  nor  place  where  persons  were  wanting  to  instruct  and 
chastise  them.  One  of  the  best  and  ablest  men  in  the  city 
was,  moreover,  appointed  inspector  of  the  youth,  and  he  gave 
the  command  of  each  company  to  the  discreetest  and  most 
spirited  of  those,  called  Irens.  A  Melliren  was  one  who  had 
been  two  years  out  of  the  class  of  boys  (eighteen  years) ;  an 
Iren,  one  of  the  oldest  lads." 

This  organization  of  the  entire  life  of  the  boys  consti- 
tuted the  school.  The  family,  the  shop,  the  church,  the 
social  life  of  other  peoples,  all  were  merged  into  this  one 
educational  institution.  The  boys  slept  in  public  barracks ; 
they  ate  at  common  tables ;  they  assisted  in  supplying  the 
necessary  food  ;  they  hunted  wild  animals  under  the  direction 
of  their  Irens;  they  participated  in  the  choral  dances  of  their 


Greek  Education  75 

religious  ceremonies ;  and  finally  all  the  remainder  of  their 
time  was  spent  in  the  gymnastic  exercises  which  constituted 
the  chief  instrument  of  their  education. 

At  eighteen  the  boy  entered  the  class  of  ephebi,  or  cadets 
where  he  received  a  strict  military  training  for  several  years. 
For  two  years  he  was  classed  with  the  Mellirens  who  devoted 
themselves  to  the  serious  study  of  arms  and  to  military 
maneuvers.  During  this  time  he  underwent  rigid  examina- 
tions every  ten  days  and  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  the 
instruction  of  younger  boys.  From  twenty  to  thirty  he  was 
enrolled  among  the  Irens.  Then  his  training  became  but 
little  differentiated  from  actual  warfare,  practiced  during  the 
intervals  of  peace  at  the  expense  of  the  Helots. 

At  the  age  of  thirty  the  youth  became  a  man,  only  to  con- 
tinue both  the  complete  devotion  of  his  services  to  the  state 
and  the  training  necessary  thereto.  Though  he  became  a 
full  citizen  and  the  head  of  a  family,  yet  he  continued  to 
reside  in  the  public  barracks,  to  eat  at  the  common  table,  to 
serve  as  a  teacher  of  the  youth  and  a  soldier  in  the  field, 
faring  the  same  as  the  humblest  or  the  noblest  in  all  the 
necessities  and  comforts  of  life. 

Content  of  Spartan  Education.  —  Into  this  education  there 
entered  very  little  of  the  intellectual  and  aesthetic;  it  was 
dominantly  physical  and  moral.  Plutarch  sums  up  the  con- 
tent of  their  education  in  these  words :  "  As  for  learning, 
they  had  just  what  was  absolutely  necessary.  All  the  rest 
of  their  education  was  calculated  to  make  them  subject 
to  command,  to  endure  labor,  to  fight  and  to  conquer." 
Again  he  states  the  purpose  of  Lycurgus  and  hence  of  their 
education  thus  :  "  He  thought  rather  that  the  happiness  of  a 
state,  as  of  a  private  citizen,  consisted  chiefly  in  the  exercise 
of  virtue  and  in  the  concord  of  its  inhabitants.  His  aim  in 
all  his  arrangement  was  to  make  and  keep  the  people  free- 
minded,  self-dependent  and  temperate." 

There  was  much  conversation  and   association    with    the 


76  History  of  Education 

elders,  either  at  meal  time  or  in  the  street,  when  they  were 
wont  to  test  the  boys  in  repartee  and  ready  speech,  and  to 
train  them  in  ideas  of  justice  and  honor.  Especially  in  the 
latter  centuries  of  their  history,  some  training  in  reading  and 
writing  was  given.  We  know  that  they  possessed  some 
knowledge  of  these  arts,  for  accounts  were  kept  and  com- 
munications of  ambassadors  and  generals  were  made  in 
writing ;  but  this  training  was  given  individually  and  did 
not  constitute  a  component  part  of  their  national  training. 
Through  the  choral  dances  and  religious  ceremonies  there 
was  training  in  music,  for  which  there  must  have  been  some 
private  instruction  in  the  use  of  instruments.  To  a  large 
extent  their  training  came  through  the  approved  forms  of 
exercises,  —  running,  leaping,  jumping,  discus  throwing,  jave- 
lin casting,  boxing,  military  drill  combined  with  choral  danc- 
ing, but  above  all  wrestling.  Wrestling  required  both  the 
fullest  exercise  of  the  whole  body,  in  which  there  was  no 
over-development  of  the  lower  limbs,  as  in  running,  or  of  the 
upper  limbs,  as  in  the  throwing  exercises,  and  a  training  in 
patience,  in  the  control  of  the  temper,  in  quickness  of  percep- 
tion, and  in  ingenuity  in  taking  advantage  of  an  opponent. 
Certain  phases  of  Spartan  training  in  endurance  and  skill  are 
hardly  to  be  termed  gymnastics.  It  was  customary  upon 
frequent  occasions  to  beat  both  the  boys  and  the  youths 
before  the  altar  of  Artemis  with  such  severity  that  death  not 
infrequently  ensued.  For  similar  purposes  they  tolerated 
the  pancratium,  though  not  to  the  extent  of  the  other  Greek 
states.  This  pancratium  was  a  physical  contest  in  which  the 
contestants  were  allowed  to  resort  to  any  means  to  gain  the 
advantage  of  their  opponent,  even  to  the  extent  of  maiming 
or  disfigurement  for  life.  This,  however,  was  not  due  to 
primary  love  of  cruelty  itself,  since  gladiatorial  contests  were 
entirely  forbidden.  Hunting,  their  chief  sport  and  occupa- 
tion of  their  leisure  time,  was  at  the  same  time  a  form  of 
exercise  quite  as  important  as  any  branch  of  the  formal 
curriculum. 


Greek  Education 


77 


With  all  their  emphasis  on  gymnastics,  the  Spartans  had 
no  gymnasium  and  no  training  of  a  professional  character. 
The  trained  athlete  and  the  beautifully  developed  physique 
—  important  objects  of  gymnastic  training  with  other  Grecian 
peoples  —  were  alike  foreign  to  their  purposes.  The  resource- 
ful and  handy  soldier,  keen,  cautious,  self-controlled,  fearless, 
pitiless,  inured  to  all  hardship,  obedient  to  command,  respect- 
ful to  authority,  able  to  act  in  unison  with  his  fellows,  and 
with  that  disregard  for  death  that  was  by  the  Athenians 
accounted  as  insolence — he  was  the  object  of  the  Spartan 
training.  Their  music  and  their  choral  and  religious  dances 
were  used  to  develop  similar  qualities.  Since  these  dances 
consisted  of  intricate  movements  often  in  full  armor,  they 
were  thus  accustomed  to  concerted  action.  Their  music, 
which  lacked  all  of  the  aesthetic  emotional,  even  effeminate, 
influence  of  other  Greek  music,  inspired  to  courage  and  to 
devotion.  The  "Dorian  mood"  received  the  unqualified 
approval  of  Greek  philosophers.  Plato,  especially,  would 
banish  all  others. 

Moral  Training.  —  There  remain  to  be  noted  certain 
aspects  of  their  moral  training  beyond  such  as  were  the  out- 
come and  the  accompaniment  of  their  training  in  gymnastics 
and  music.  In  fact  the  Spartan  system  of  education  gives  a 
direct  answer  to  the  question,  "  Can  morality  be  taught  ?  " 
One  means  by  which  the  moral  results  were  obtained  was  the 
fact  that  all  contests  were  in  the  open  air,  that  all  the  boy's 
education  —  in  fact  all  his  life  —  was  public.  Hence  the 
approval  or  disapproval  of  his  elders  was  a  constant  source 
of  discipline.  The  frequent  conversation,  either  of  an  infor- 
mal character  or  supervised  by  the  adult  in  two  ways  now 
to  be  mentioned  and  relating  to  moral  or  social  questions, 
secured  similar  results.  Plutarch  describes  the  first  custom 
in  these  words  :  — 

"The  Iren,  reposing  himself  after  supper,  used  to  order 
some  of  the  boys  to  sing  a  song  ;  to  another  he  put  some 


78  History  of  Education 

question  which  required  a  judicious  answer,  for  example: 
'  Who  was  the  best  man  in  the  city  ? '  or,  '  What  he  thought 
of  such  an  aciion  ? '  This  accustomed  them  from  their  child- 
hood to  judge  of  the  virtues,  to  enter  into  the  affairs  of  their 
countrymen.  For  if  one  of  them  was  asked  '  Who  is  a  good 
citizen,  or  who  an  infamous  one  ?  '  and  hesitated  in  his  an- 
swer, he  was  considered  as  a  boy  of  slow  parts,  and  of  a  soul 
that  would  not  aspire  to  honour.  The  answer  was  likewise 
to  have  a  reason  assigned  for  it,  and  proof  conceived  in  few 
words.  He  whose  account  of  the  matter  was  wrong,  by  way 
of  punishment  had  his  thumb  bit  by  the  Iren.  The  old  men 
and  magistrates  often  attended  these  little  trials,  to  see 
whether  the  Iren  exercised  his  authority  in  a  rational  and 
proper  manner.  He  was  permitted,  indeed,  to  inflict  the 
penalties  ;  but  when  the  boys  were  gone,  he  was  to  be  chas- 
tised himself  if  he  had  punished  them  either  with  too  much 
severity  or  remissness." 

The  other  custom,  one  most  characteristic  of  the  Greeks 
since  it  tended  to  occupy  the  same  place  in  their  society  that 
romantic  attachments  or  those  of  sentiment  and  affection 
occupy  in  ours,  was  that  of  the  relation  between  "  the  in- 
spirer"  and  "the  hearer."  The  above  quotation  continues 
as  follows  :  — 

"  The  adopters  of  favourites  also  shared  both  in  the  honour 
and  disgrace  of  their  boys  ;  and  one  of  them  is  said  to  have 
been  mulcted  by  the  magistrates  because  the  boy  whom  he 
had  taken  into  his  affections  let  some  ungenerous  word  or 
cry  escape  him  as  he  was  fighting.  This  love  was  so  hon- 
ourable and  in  so  much  esteem,  that  the  virgins,  too,  had 
their  lovers  amongst  the  most  virtuous  matrons.  A  competi- 
tion of  affection  caused  no  misunderstanding,  but  rather  a 
mutual  friendship  between  those  that  had  fixed  their  regards 
upon  the  same  youth,  and  a  united  endeavour  to  make  him 
as  accomplished  as  possible." 

In  other  words,  every  Spartan  adult  was  a  teacher,  and 
every  Spartan  boy  had  a  tutor,  selected  through  mutual 
esteem,  bound  together  by  no  economic  ties,  but  by  those  of 


Greek  Education  79 

friendship  and  affection.  Through  this  companionship  usu« 
ally  outside  of  the  hours  of  regular  gymnastic  training,  he 
received  a  further  training  in  justice,  in  honor,  in  patriotism, 
in  self-control  and  self-sacrifice,  in  honesty — though  we 
may  question  their  conception  of  that  honesty  which  taught 
them  to  deceive  and  even  steal  for  military  purposes,  as  no 
doubt  they  would  question  our  standards  which  connive  at 
similar  deception  for  economic  advantages.  In  conclusion,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  while  the  Spartan  moral  training  con- 
served certain  elemental  virtues,  its  effects  morally,  as  well 
as  physically,  had  a  hardening,  even  a  brutalizing  tendency. 

Other  phases  of  Spartan  education  can  only  be  men- 
tioned. As  with  no  other  ancient  people,  they  gave  women 
practically  the  same  kind  of  education  as  men  —  yet  with  no 
higher  purpose  than  that  of  training  mothers  of  warriors. 
While  with  them  there  was  an  absence  of  those  grosser 
forms  of  immorality  characteristic  of  early  forms  of  civiliza- 
tion and  constituting  a  blot  upon  the  fame  of  Athens,  —  they 
yet  practically  destroyed  the  family.  While  they  possessed 
a  sturdy  character  and  the  elemental  virtues  in  a  higher  de- 
gree than  did  the  other  Greeks,  they  saw  little  of  the  beauty 
of  life  and  possessed  few  of  the  graces  of  character.  They 
have  left  us  a  type  of  education  that  produced  physical 
strength,  endurance,  and  stamina,  the  homely  moral  quali- 
ties, strength  of  character  under  a  despotic  system  of  regu- 
lation, and  a  citizen  body  strongly  imbued  with  patriotism 
and  a  devotion  to  the  state  that  encompassed  every  activity 
and  every  interest  in  life.  But  to  future  generations  they 
have  left  little  save  their  example. 

Athenian  Education  during  the  Old  Greek  Period.  —  Save  in 
the  simplicity  of  aim  and  in  the  means  adopted  for  training, 
the  old  Greek  education  at  Athens  had  little  in  common  with 
that  at  Sparta.  Even  in  these  two  general  respects,  there 
was  wide  divergence  in  the  relative  values  assigned  to  the 
various  elements  in  the  aim  and  in  the  emphasis  upon  the 


8o  History  of  Education 

various  subjects  of  study.  All  that  has  been  said  concerning 
Hellenic  ideals  of  life  and  that  clear  development  of  individu- 
ality worked  out  by  the  Greeks  applies  with  peculiar  force  to 
the  lonians  and,  above  all,  to  the  Athenians.  At  the  very 
close  of  this  early  period  Thucydides  (Bk.  II.,  par.  40) 
formulates  the  aim  of  their  education  in  these  words,  put 
into  the  mouth  of  Pericles,  and  descriptive  of  the  life  of  the 
Athenians  :  — 

"  If  then  we  prefer  to  meet  danger  with  a  light  heart  but 
without  laborious  training,  and  with  a  courage  which  is  gained 
by  habit  and  not  enforced  by  law,  are  we  not  greatly  the 
gainers  ?  Since  we  do  not  anticipate  the  pain,  although, 
when  the  hour  comes,  we  can  be  as  brave  as  those  who  never 
allow  themselves  to  rest;  and  thus,  too,  our  city  is  equally  admi- 
rable in  peace  and  in  war.  For  we  are  lovers  of  the  beautiful, 
yet  simple  in  our  tastes,  and  we  cultivate  the  mind  without 
loss  of  manliness.  Wealth  we  employ,  not  for  talk  and 
ostentation,  but  when  there  is  a  real  use  for  it.  To  avow 
poverty  with  us  is  no  disgrace  ;  the  true  disgrace  is  in  doing 
nothing  to  avoid  it.  An  Athenian  citizen  does  not  neglect  the 
state  because  he  takes  care  of  his  own  household ;  and  even 
those  of  us  who  are  engaged  in  business  have  a  very  fair  idea 
of  politics.  We  alone  regard  a  man  who  takes  no  interest  in 
public  affairs,  not  as  a  harmless,  but  as  a  useless  character  ; 
and  if  few  of  us  are  originators,  we  are  all  sound  judges  of  a 
policy.  The  great  impediment  to  action  is,  in  our  opinion,  not 
discussion,  but  the  want  of  that  knowledge  which  is  gained  by 
discussion  preparatory  to  action.  For  we  have  a  peculiar 
power  of  thinking  before  we  act  and  of  acting  too,  whereas 
other  men  are  courageous  from  ignorance  but  hesitate  upon 
reflection.  And  they  are  surely  to  be  esteemed  the  bravest 
spirits  who,  having  the  clearest  sense  both  of  the  pains  and 
pleasures  of  life,  do  not  on  that  account  shrink  from  danger." 

This,  however,  represents  rather  the  outgrowth  of  the  old 
education  than  the  ideal  consciously  conceived  during  the 
period  itself. 

The  organization  of  Athenian  education,  controlled  as  it  was 
by  a  different  conception  of  life  from  that  which  prevailed  at 


Greek  Education  81 

Sparta,  was  radically  different  from  that  of  the  latter.  The 
citizen,  guiding  his  life  by  reason,  wise  and  judicious  in  his 
performance  of  the  manifold  public  duties  demanded  by  the 
state,  yet  free  in  the  disposition  of  his  leisure  time  and  in 
his  interpretation  of  social  obligations,  as  well  as  strong  in 
body  and  brave  in  warfare,  could  not  be  produced  by  an 
education  thoroughly  controlled  by  a  despotic  socialistic 
regime,  as  at  Sparta.  Rather  than  to  destroy  the  family,  as 
at  Sparta,  Athens  aimed  to  preserve  it  as  a  means  of  develop- 
ing and  shaping  personality,  and  upon  it  placed  the  burden 
of  responsibility  for  education.  If  family  pride,  parental 
affection,  and  a  sense  of  social  obligation  were  insufficient  to 
secure  the  proper  training,  the  child  whose  education  had 
been  neglected  by  the  father  was  freed  by  the  laws  of  Solon 
from  all  obligations  of  support  in  his  parent's  old  age.  All 
schools  were  private  schools;  and  the  state  provided  directly 
for  only  that  portion  of  education  between  the  ages  of  sixteen 
and  twenty  which  was  almost  wholly  physical  and  a  direct 
preparation  for  military  service.  This  freedom  in  regard  to 
schools  was  allowed  to  degenerate  neither  into  neglect  nor 
license.  The  state  required  a  training  in  music  and  gymnas- 
tics, and  while  the  freedom  and  the  privacy  of  home  life  were 
not  destroyed,  certain  results  were  demanded  by  law  and  the 
process  was  supervised  by  the  court  of  the  Areopagus.  This 
court  had  especial  charge  of  the  morals  of  the  youth,  and 
during  the  period  it  preserved  its  original  authority,  punished 
with  severity  grave  breaches  in  the  accepted  standards  of 
morality.  Though  the  Athenians  themselves  were  occasion- 
ally guilty  of  great  cruelty  in  their  civil  wars,  Quintilian 
relates  that  the  Areopagus  condemned  to  death  a  boy  who 
had  gouged  out  the  eyes  of  his  pet  quails.  The  officials, 
pedagogues,  and  the  family  of  the  schoolmaster  were  the 
only  ones  allowed  within  the  schoolroom.  The  laws  of  Solon 
provided  the  penalty  of  death  for  the  infringement  of  this 
regulation.  Since  the  music  schools,  especially  those  for 


82  History  of  Education 

the  poorer  children,  were  sometimes  in  the  open,  and  the 
youth  in  the  higher  gymnastic  schools  exercised  with  the 
adults,  this  regulation  no  doubt  referred  to  the  lower  gymnas- 
tic schools.  Even  in  regard  to  the  palaestra,  it  is  evident 
from  incidental  references  in  the  poets  that  the  law  was 
not  enforced  in  later  times.  Schoolhouses  owned  by  the 
masters  were  quite  common.  The  state  may  have  provided 
some  of  the  palaestrae,  or  elementary  gymnastic  schools,  as  it 
did,  without  any  question,  the  gymnasia  for  advanced  physi- 
cal education.  While  the  philosophers  and  the  leaders  of 
Athenian  thought  in  the  later  period  agreed  in  their  advocacy 
of  a  rigid  state  system  of  education,  no  approach  was  ever 
made  to  it,  for  individual  liberty  was  ever  prized  too  highly  to 
weaken  it  through  any  approximation  to  a  socialistic  education 
or  to  jeopardize  the  constitution  of  society  by  removing  the 
obligation  of  education  from  the  family. 

The  training  of  the  child  for  the  first  seven  years  was  wholly 
in  the  hands  of  the  family.  As  at  Sparta,  this  training  was 
chiefly  physical,  since  the  chief  concern  was  to  secure  a  hardy 
constitution  and  a  well-developed  physique.  As  at  Sparta, 
exposure  of  children  was  practiced,  but  as  characteristic  of 
the  greater  freedom  allowed  the  individual,  this  was  determined 
by  the  father  instead  of  by  state  officials.  Undoubtedly 
the  practice  was  more  corrupting  at  Athens,  for  at  Sparta 
only  those  physically  unfit  for  service  to  the  state  were  de- 
stroyed, while  at  the  former  place  much  greater  license  was 
exercised  by  the  father,  guided  as  he  might  be  solely  by  pru- 
dence, economic  motives  or  mere  indifference.  Nor  was  the 
training  within  the  family  of  as  high  a  character,  as  a  rule, 
at  Athens.  There  the  child  was  usually  given  into  the  charge 
of  nurses  and  slaves  ;  while  at  Sparta  the  mothers  retained 
the  direct  care  and  were  famous  throughout  Greece  for  the  care- 
ful physical  and  moral  training  they  gave  their  children.  A 
most  interesting  phase  of  child  life,  before  the  definite  series 
of  physical  exercises  in  school  life  was  taken  up,  is  indicated 


Greek  Education  83 

by  the  fact  that  Greek  literature  mentions  or  describes  a  very 
extensive  list  of  children's  games,  including  practically  all 
that  we  have  to-day.  So  in  the  home,  on  the  street,  in  the 
country,  then  as  now,  the  child's  early  education  was  uncon- 
sciously furnished. 

School  life  began  at  about  seven  and,  for  the  children  oi 
the  free  Greek  families,  save  those  financially  unable,  contin- 
ued for  eight  or  nine  years.  The  age  of  entering,  the  length 
of  attendance,  and  the  subjects  studied  depended  somewhat 
upon  the  standing  of  the  family.  In  two  respects  Athenian 
education  differed  very  widely  from  modern  practice :  in 
that  the  Athenian  boy  attended  two  distinct  types  of  school 
throughout  the  period  of  his  early  schooling ;  and,  in  that 
the  character  of  work  of  these  two  schools  was  radically  dif- 
ferent from  modern  ones.  The  requirements  of  the  state  for 
training  in  music  and  gymnastics  were  provided  for  by  the 
establishment  of  these  two  types  of  schools,  —  both  of  which 
the  boy  attended.  It  is  known  that  the  school  hours  were 
long,  for  a  law  of  Solon  forbade  their  being  open  before  sun- 
rise and  after  sunset ;  but  it  is  not  known  whether  the  boy 
began  attending  the  gymnastic  school  or  palaestra  before  he 
did  the  music  school  or  whether  he  attended  both  in  the  same 
day,  nor  if  so,  which  was  held  in  the  forenoon  and  which  in 
the  afternoon.  It  is  certain  that  for  the  most  part  they  were 
separate  institutions  kept  by  private  masters,  frequently  in 
their  own  homes.  Music  schools  were  often  held  in  out-of- 
the-way  nooks,  in  temples  or  other  public  buildings. 

During  all  of  this  period,  from  the  time  he  grew  out  of  the 
care  of  the  nurse,  the  Greek  boy  was  in  charge  of  a  peda- 
gogue,—  a  slave  or  servant,  —  who  was  intrusted  with  the 
moral  oversight  and  general  care  of  his  charge.  Too  often 
one  was  chosen  for  this  who  from  age,  injury,  or  other  disquali- 
fication was  unfit  for  any  other  remunerative  service  in  the 
household.  It  is  evident  that  they  were  frequently  ignorant 
and  unrespected  by  their  charges  to  whom  they  were  but  an 


84  History  of  Education 

interference  in  the  pleasures  of  the  street  and  of  companion 
ship. 

At  about  sixteen  years  of  age  the  youth  was  freed  from 
the  care  of  the  pedagogue,  discontinued  all  literary  and  musi- 
cal study  and  replaced  the  training  of  the  palaestra  with  that 
of  the  gymnasium,  where  he  associated  most  freely  with 
youth  of  his  own  age  and  with  adults.  Here  he  was  taught  or 
trained  in  a  variety  of  exercises  by  a  state  official,  the  pcedotribe 
—  and  was  under  the  general  supervision  of  the  sophronist,  or 
moral  overseer.  During  this  period,  while  the  youth  was 
given  much  wider  liberty,  he  was  yet  held  under  strict  super- 
vision by  state  officials,  especially  the  censor  of  morals ;  and 
during  tne  old  Greek  period  the  rigid  character  of  their  ideals 
was  such  that  they  were  looked  upon  in  the  succeeding  period 
as  quite  puritanical.  In  many  respects  they  would  be  so  con- 
sidered by  us  now. 

During  the  old  Greek  period  there  were  two  of  these  public 
gymnasia,  the  Academy  and  Cynosarges,  erected  toward  the 
opening  of  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  outside  the  city  walls. 
Here  in  the  midst  of  beautiful  groves  and  extensive  gardens 
or  parks,  the  sons  of  pure  Athenians  at  the  Academy,  others 
of  mixed  blood  at  the  Cynosarges,  passed  two  years  in  free 
association  with  elders  and  in  the  physical  contests  and  social 
and  political  discussions  that  prepared  them  for  the  life  of  the 
Athenian  citizen.  The  fact  that  only  the  sons  of  the  wealthier 
or  better  class  were  thus  prepared  for  the  duties  of  public  life, 
reserved  the  conduct  of  affairs  for  this  class,  and  thus,  in  the 
old  period,  defended  the  aristocratic  character  of  their  life 
from  the  democratic  tendency  which  later  became  dominant. 

The  only  intellectual  training  was  this  indirect  one  which 
he  obtained  from  association  with  his  elders.  Through  dis- 
cussion in  the  agora,  conversation  at  banquets,  attendance 
upon  the  theater  and  the  law  courts,  he  gained  that  knowl- 
edge of  the  laws  and  moral  customs  necessary  to  direct  his 
conduct.  Moral  delinquencies  that  argued  any  lack  of  ap- 


Greek  Education  85 

preciation  of  the  responsibilities  of  citizenship  brought  him 
before  the  court  of  the  Areopagus. 

Public  Education  of  the  Ephebes. —  Having  completed  this 
two  years  of  preparatory  training  and  demonstrated  to  the 
officials  that  he  met  the  moral  and  physical  requirements  of 
citizenship,  he  was  enrolled  among  the  list  of  free  citizens, 
took  the  oath  pledging  fidelity  to  the  state,  the  gods  and  the 
moral  traditions  of  his  people,  was  furnished  in  the  public 
assembly  with  his  equipment  as  a  soldier  either  by  his  father 
or,  if  an  orphan  through  war,  by  the  state,  and  exchanged 
the  dress  of  youth  for  that  of  the  free  citizen.  There  was 
yet  a  definite  training  in  the  use  of  arms  and  in  general  mili- 
tary discipline  before  he  assumed  the  duties  and  privileges 
of  full  citizenship.  This  was  the  technical  period  of  ephebic 
or  cadet  education,  common  to  all  Grecian  people,  though  it 
varied  in  length  from  two  years  (later  one  year,  at  Athens) 
to  ten  years  at  Sparta.  As  during  the  two  earlier  years  of 
ephebic  discipline  —  that  from  sixteen  to  eighteen  in  the  gym- 
nasium—  the  youth  had  remained  under  the  control  of  parent 
or  guardian,  so  for  these  latter  two  years  he  remained 
under  direct  control  of  state  officials.  The  first  year  of  this 
service  was  spent  in  barrack  or  camp  life  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  city  and  was  devoted  to  severe  military  training  in  use 
of  arms  and  in  the  conduct  of  practical  affairs  of  the  state. 
In  the  second  year  this  life  became  that  of  the  regular  soldier 
in  more  remote  garrisons  with  the  idea  of  acquainting  the 
prospective  citizen  with  the  roads,  frontier,  and  topography 
of  his  country  as  well  as  with  the  duties  of  a  soldier.  Some 
have  thought  that  this  police  duty  was  performed  by  the 
ephebes  for  the  city  as  well  as  for  the  country  regions,  but 
this  is  not  positively  determined.  During  the  entire  ephebic. 
period,  no  small  part  of  this  training  in  public  service  con- 
sisted in  their  participation  in  the  religious  and  social  festi- 
vals, as  is  depicted  in  the  Panathenaic  procession  on  the 
frieze  of  the  Parthenon.  In  these  festivals  training  in  religious 


86  History  of  Education 

devotion  and  patriotism  is  combined  with  the  cultivation  of 
the  graces  of  life  and  of  harmonious  physical  development. 
The  end  of  the  first  year  was  signalized  by  a  public  examina- 
tion in  the  use  of  arms  ;  that  of  the  second,  by  a  similar 
examination  upon  the  duties  of  citizenship,  which  were 
thereupon  assumed. 

Even  here  the  process  of  education  did  not  cease,  for  the 
life  of  the  Athenian  citizen  was  one  neither  of  private  enter- 
prise nor  of  private  indulgence.  On  the  contrary,  the  state 
demanded  such  services  of  the  citizen  that  a  life  of  economic 
activity  for  personal  ends  was  hardly  possible,  certainly  not 
to  the  extent  common  in  modern  times.  The  pleasures  of 
private  life,  whether  amusements  in  sports  and  games,  atten- 
dance upon  the  theater,  or  social  gatherings  for  eating  and 
drinking,  were  controlled  by  the  Athenians,  though  somewhat 
less  directly  than  by  the  Spartans,  for  ends  that  were  social. 
The  state  and  the  entire  social  life  became  a  school  in  which, 
although  effort  for  physical  perfection  was  not  neglected,  yet 
greater  emphasis  was  laid  upon  intellectual  and  moral  growth. 
Thus  was  obtained  the  highest  conception  of  the  elements 
of  nobility  or  virtue  that  constituted  the  ever  developing 
"  worth  "  of  the  Athenian  citizen. 

IVhile  this  oiganization  of  education  did  not  become  clearly 
adfined  in  all  of  its  details,  probably  not  even  in  its  chief 
stages,  until  late  in  the  old  Greek  period,  it  formed  the  full 
expression  of  the  old  Greek  ideals  and  was  a  feature  of  Greek 
life  during  the  fifth  century.  The  definite  training  of  the 
ephebes  was  the  latest  phase  of  this  early  educational  devel- 
opment to  take  shape. 

Plato's  Description  of  the  Athenian  Schoolboy's  Life.  —  The 
entire  training  of  the  Athenian  boy  is  most  succinctly  de- 
scribed in  a  paragraph  of  one  of  the  Socratic  dialogues  of 
Plato  :J- 

'  The  Protagoras,  Jowett,  Trans.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  138,  139.     1st  Ed. 


Greek  Education  87 

"  Education  and  admonition  commence  in  the  first  years  of 
childhood,  and  last  to  the  very  end  of  life.  Mother  and 
nurse  and  father  and  tutor  are  quarrelling  about  the  improve- 
ment of  the  child  as  soon  as  ever  he  is  able  to  understand 
them  ;  he  cannot  say  or  do  anything  without  their  setting 
forth  to  him  that  this  is  just  and  that  is  unjust ;  this  is  honour- 
able, that  is  dishonourable ;  this  is  holy,  that  is  unholy  ;  do 
this  and  abstain  from  that.  And  if  he  obeys,  well  and  good  ; 
if  not,  he  is  straightened  by  threats  and  blows,  like  a  piece  of 
warped  wood.  At  a  later  stage  they  send  him  to  teachers, 
and  enjoin  them  to  see  to  his  manners  even  more  than  to  his 
reading  and  music ;  and  the  teachers  do  as  they  are  desired. 
And  when  the  boy  has  learned  his  letters  and  is  beginning  to 
understand  what  is  written,  as  before  he  understood  only 
what  was  spoken,  they  put  into  his  hands  the  works  of  great 
poets,  which  he  reads  at  school ;  in  these  are  contained  many 
admonitions,  and  many  tales,  and  praises,  and  encomia  of 
ancient  famous  men,  which  he  is  required  to  learn  by  heart, 
in  order  that  he  may  imitate  or  emulate  them  and  desire  to 
become  like  them.  Then,  again,  the  teachers  of  the  lyre  take 
similar  care  that  their  young  disciple  is  temperate  and  gets 
into  no  mischief  ;  and  when  they  have  taught  him  the  use  of 
the  lyre,  they  introduce  him  to  the  poems  of  other  excellent 
poets,  who  are  the  lyric  poets  ;  and  these  they  set  to  music, 
and  make  their  harmonies  and  rhythms  quite  familiar  to  the 
children's  souls,  in  order  that  they  may  learn  to  be  more 
gentle,  and  harmonious,  and  rhythmical,  and  so  more  fitted  for 
speech  and  action  ;  for  the  life  of  man  in  every  part  has  need 
of  harmony  and  rhythm.  Then  they  send  them  to  the  master 
of  gymnastic,  in  order  that  their  bodies  may  better  minister 
to  the  virtuous  mind,  and  that  they  may  not  be  compelled 
through  bodily  weakness  to  play  the  coward  in  war  or  on 
any  other  occasion.  This  is  what  is  done  by  those  who  have 
the  means,  and  those  who  have  the  means  are  the  rich  ;  their 
children  begin  education  soonest  and  leave  off  latest.  When 
they  have  done  with  masters,  the  state  again  compels  them 
to  learn  the  laws,  and  live  after  the  pattern  which  they  fur- 
nish, and  not  after  their  own  fancies  ;  and  just  as  in  learning 
to  write,  the  writing-master  first  draws  lines  with  a  style  for 
the  use  of  the  young  beginner,  and  gives  him  the  tablet  and 
makes  him  follow  the  lines,  so  the  city  draws  the  laws,  which 


88  History  of  Education 

were  the  invention  of  good  lawgivers  who  were  of  old  time , 
these  are  given  to  the  young  man,  in  order  to  guide  him  in 
his  conduct  whether  as  ruler  or  ruled  ;  and  he  who  trans- 
gresses them  is  to  be  corrected,  or,  in  other  words,  called  to 
account,  which  is  a  term  used  not  only  in  your  country,  but 
also  in  many  others." 

The  Content  of  Greek  Education :  Gymnastics.  — The  most 
striking  contrast  between  Greek  and  modern  education  is 
found,  not  in  its  organization,  but  in  its  content,  especially  in 
the  importance  given  to  gymastics.  In  the  period  of  school 
life  from  seven  to  sixteen,  fully  half — and  before  the  fifth 
century  much  more  than  half  —  of  the  boy's  time  was  given 
to  the  palaestra.  The  entire  formal  education  of  the  ephebic 
period,  including  the  two  years  in  the  gymnasium  and  the  two 
years'  garrison  duty,  likewise  consisted  in  physical  training. 
And  yet  from  all  this  the  Greeks  got  much  more  than  mere 
physical  development.  Moral  ends  were  no  less  important. 
Whole-mindedness  or  temperance  —  the  control  of  the  passions 
and  the  emotions  by  reason  —  was  thus  obtained.  Above  all 
the  coordination  of  thought  and  action,  the  fitting  of  conduct 
to  precept,  of  word  to  action,  was  secured  through  this  same 
training,  and  there  resulted  that  harmony  between  the  inner 
thought  life  and  the  outer  life  of  conduct  which  formed  the 
ideal  of  the  Greeks. 

Games  and  physical  contests  were  not  indulged  in  haphaz- 
ard as  with  the  modern  youth,  nor  participated  in  by  the  few 
for  the  entertainment  of  the  many.  Nor  were  the  standards 
of  excellence  the  same  as  modern  ones.  Success  consisted 
not  so  much  in  the  winning  of  the  contest  as  in  the  evidence 
given  of  the  proper  form  of  the  exercise,  the  graceful  and 
dignified  carriage,  the  control  of  temper,  and  of  skill.  Run- 
ning races  were  usually  held  in  the  sand  or  with  lighted 
torches,  so  that  it  can  be  seen  that  speed  alone  was  not  the 
test ;  and  the  great  variety  of  forms  of  wrestling  indicates 
that  muscular  strength  was  not  the  chief  qualification,  nor 


Greek  Education  89 

development  of  it  the  aim.  Above  all  other  exercises,  espe- 
cially above  those  forms  that  called  for  display  of  mere  force, 
were  prized  such  games  as  called  for  quickness  of  perception 
and  evidence  of  courage  or  "  pluck."  Succeeding  the  games 
of  little  children  there  were  used  a  great  variety  of  games 
with  the  ball,  and  of  contests  in  running,  together  with  a 
multitude  of  children's  games  and  simple  forms  of  exercises 
or  calisthenics.  In  the  schools  these  exercises  were  organized 
into  a  more  definite  course  of  study  called  the  pentathlon. 
This  included  in  succession,  jumping,  running,  throwing  the 
discus,  throwing  the  spear,  and  wrestling.  Wrestling  devel- 
oped into  boxing,  with  the  open  palms  of  the  hands,  and  into 
the  pancratium.  This  latter  was  a  combination  of  boxing  and 
wrestling  in  which  hands  and  feet,  in  fact  any  means  of 
discomfiting  one's  opponent,  might  be  used.  At  Athens, 
however,  this  was  reserved  for  the  older  boys  and  was  always 
under  strict  control  of  the  gymnastic  teachers  or  directors. 

The  various  forms  of  leaping  developed  a  power  of  concen- 
tration of  energy,  as  did  the  short  runs.  Both  brought  about 
a  general  muscular  development  of  the  entire  body,  general 
agility,  and  an  increased  capacity  of  the  lungs.  The  long 
races  resulted  in  power  of  endurance.  Discus  throwing  and 
javelin  casting  were  especially  designed  as  arm  exercises, 
though  no  form  of  exercise  so  developed  poise  and  symmetry, 
the  complete  coordination  in  physical  development,  as  did  dis- 
cus throwing.  This  is  evidenced  in  Greek  statuary.  Javelin 
throwing  also  trained  in  precision  of  eye  and  hand.  It  was 
in  the  great  variety  of  forms  of  wrestling  that  their  training 
culminated,  for  in  this  were  combined  the  excellencies  of  all 
the  former  exercises  together  with  a  definite  training  in 
moral  qualities.  Nowhere  else  was  there  such  a  demand  for 
agility,  for  concentration  of  energy,  for  endurance,  for  supple- 
ness, for  quickness  of  perception,  for  ingenuity,  for  the  con- 
trol of  temper,  for  the  entire  subjection  of  the  passions  to  the 
control  of  reason.  This  series  of  exercises  was  used  in  public 


QO  History  of  Education 

contests  as  a  means  of  successively  eliminating  the  greater 
number  of  competitors  until  the  final  contest  was  determined 
by  the  wrestling  match.  To  these  forms  of  exercise  are  to 
be  added  two  others  in  universal  use,  —  swimming  and  hunt- 
ing. The  former  was  an  accomplishment  of  every  Greek 
boy, l  while  hunting  was  very  generally  indulged  in  as  a  form 
of  training  for  the  older  youth  that  should  bring  out  all  of  the 
merits  aimed  at  through  the  pentathlon,  in  addition  to  the 
emphasis  it  gave  to  individual  initiative.  Hunting,  however, 
on  account  of  the  unfavorable  situation  in  a  thickly  populated 
and  level  country,  could  not  be  indulged  in  to  the  extent  it 
was  at  Sparta.  Consequently  the  formal  exercises  assumed  a 
very  much  more  prominent  place  at  Athens  than  among  the 
Spartans,  who  rather  looked  down  upon  the  exercises  of  the 
palaestra  and  gymnasium  as  effeminate. 

Music,  to  be  understood  in  a  much  broader  sense  than  is 
given  in  the  modern  meaning  of  the  term,  constituted  the 
second  portion  of  the  Greek  curriculum.  "  Gymnastic  for  the 
body,  music  for  the  soul,"  was  their  conception  of  an  educa- 
tion. Music  in  this  sense  included  all  that  came  within  the 
activities  presided  over  by  the  nine  Muses.  Hence  poetry, 
the  drama,  history,  oratory,  the  sciences,  as  well  as  music  in 
the  more  limited  sense,  came  to  be  included  within  the  scope 
of  this  term.  It  is  in  the  restricted  meaning,  however,  that 
it  formed  the  larger  part  of  the  education  of  the  Greek  boy 
in  the  earlier  period. 

In  these  schools  the  Athenian  boy  from  early  morning  till 
sunset  spent  most  of  his  time  not  given  to  the  palaestra. 
The  earlier  years  of  childhood  were  devoted  to  memorizing 
the  Homeric  poems,  with  the  addition  of  portions  of  Hesiod, 
and  later  in  the  historic  period  selections  from  the  lyric  and 
didactic  poets.  Beyond  this  memoriter  work  the  tasks  of  the 
school  consisted  chiefly  in  explaining  the  meaning  of  words, 

1  This  is  in  dispute.  See  Mahaffy,  Old  Greek  Education,  p.  46  ;  Blflmmer, 
Htmt  Life  of  the  Greeks,  p.  126  ;  various  classical  dictionaries. 


Greek  Education  91 

phrases,  and  obscure  allusions.  After  a  few  years  devoted 
to  the  mastery  of  this  literature,  wherein  the  early  ideals  of 
Greek  life  are  expressed  in  a  form  that 'had  imperishable 
influence  on  each  succeeding  generation,  the  boy  was  taught 
to  chant  these  poems  to  an  accompaniment  on  the  lyre.  At 
what  age  this  training  in  the  use  of  the  musical  instrument 
began,  is  not  definitely  known.  Plato  states  it  as  thirteen, 
though  whether  he  refers  to  the  actual  practice  or  to  the 
regulation  in  his  ideal  state,  is  not  clear.  For  many  genera- 
tions this  constituted  all  of  the  intellectual  education  of  the 
Athenian  boy  and,  even  after  writing  and  reading  became 
common  during  the  sixth  century,  continued  to  form  the 
major  part  of  it  during  the  old  Greek  period.  However 
long  it  might  take  the  boy  to  acquire  the  ability  to  play  the 
lyre,  mere  technical  skill  was  never  the  end.  The  task  of 
the  boy  was  similar  to  that  of  the  work  of  the  old  bard. 
In  fact  the  earlier  teachers  were  the  bards  or  wandering 
minstrels,  and  thus  alone  of  early  peoples,  the  Greeks  de- 
veloped their  professional  educators  from  a  literary  rather 
than  from  an  ecclesiastical  class.  The  playing  of  the  lyre, 
in  the  school  sense,  continued  to  be  this  improvising  an 
accompaniment  in  harmony  with  the  thought  expressed  in 
the  passage  repeated.  Here  was  demanded  both  an  insight 
and  understanding  in  the  interpretation  of  the  poem  and  skill 
and  creative  ability  in  the  construction  and  performance  of 
its  accompaniment.  In  both  respects,  there  was  a  demand 
for  individual  ability  and  initiative,  and  hence  there  resulted 
a  development  of  personality  quite  foreign  to  any  preceding 
type  of  education.  Indeed  it  is  to  be  doubted  whether  edu- 
cation as  a  process  of  developing  creative  power  —  power 
of  expression,  of  initiative,  and  of  appreciation  —  has  ever 
been  given  a  more  fruitful  form.  It  is  in  this  sense  of  the 
term  that  the  Greeks  expected  and  accomplished  so  much 
from  their  musical  education.  Many  generations  later, 
speaking  of  their  early  education,  Plutarch  writes :  — 


92  History  of  Education 

"  Whoever  he  be  that  shall  give  his  mind  to  the  study  of 
music  in  his  youth,  if  he  meet  with  a  musical  education 
proper  for  the  forming  and  regulating  his  inclinations,  he 
will  be  sure  to  applaud  and  embrace  that  which  is  noble  and 
generous,  and  to  rebuke  and  blame  the  contrary,  as  well  in 
other  things  as  in  what  belongs  to  music.  And  by  that 
means  he  will  become  clear  from  all  reproachful  actions,  for 
now  having  reaped  the  noblest  fruit  of  music,  he  may  be  of 
great  use,  not  only  to  himself,  but  to  the  commonwealth  : 
while  music  teaches  him  to  abstain  from  everything  that  is 
indecent,  both  in  word  and  deed,  and  to  observe  decorum, 
temperance,  and  regularity." 


GREEK  Music  SCHOOL,  FROM  VASE  PAINTING,  ABOUT  450  B.C. 

This  musical  instruction  was  common  to  all  Greeks,  not 
alone  to  the  Athenians,  though  it  varied  somewhat  in  the 
form  of  instrument  and  type  of  song  used.  To  the  use  of 
the  Homeric  poems  the  Athenians  as  well  as  the  other 
Greeks  added  other  simple  songs  for  recital  at  the  table  and 
more  elaborate  choral  songs  for  festivals  and  religious  services. 
Aristotle  says  that  "  music  was  introduced  by  our  forefathers 
for  the  rational  enjoyment  of  leisure."  It  was  by  this  means, 
then,  that  the  Greek,  especially  the  Athenian,  developed 
those  forms  of  worth  or  of  nobility  that  produced  the  superi- 
ority of  the  free  man  over  the  lower  classes,  and  of  the 


Greek  Education 


93 


Athenian  over  the  citizens  of  other  Greek  states.  This 
purpose  is  never  lost  sight  of.  Music  develops  not  only  this 
power  of  appreciation  and  expression  but  it  produces  as  well 
a  harmony  of  soul  corresponding  to  the  harmony  of  the  body 
produced  by  gymnastics.  In  this  connection  Plato  says, 
"  Harmony  is  not  regarded  by  him  who  intelligently  uses  the 
Muses  as  given  by  them  with  a  view  to  irrational  pleasure, 
but  with  a  view  to  the  inharmonical  course  of  the  soul  and  as 
an  ally  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  this  into  harmony  and 
agreement  with  itself." 


REVERSE  OF  SAME  VASE. 

From  this  point  of  view  it  was  that  the  Greek  philosophers, 
notably  Plato,  in  their  theories  of  education,  held  that  the 
state  should  most  rigidly  control  the  musical  education  of 
children  through  the  selection  of  the  song,  the  instrument 
to  be  used,  and  the  character  of  the  music.  This  indeed  was 
the  practice  of  the  Greek  states  in  this  earlier  period. 

The  two  accompanying  illustrations  of  the  music  school  are 
taken  from  a  vase  painting  dating  from  about  450  B.C.  by  the 
Athenian  artist  Duris.  On  each  side  of  the  vase  there  are 
five  people ;  two  pupils,  two  masters,  and  a  pedagogue  who 
has  accompanied  the  boy  to  his  master  and  remains  to  look  on. 


94  History  of  Education 

to  assist,  or  merely  to  return  home  with  the  boy.  It  probably 
is  an  exigency  of  the  representation  of  the  artist,  that  each 
boy  has  a  master,  for  we  know  that  a  single  master  had  many 
pupils,  though  most  of  the  instruction,  save  in  the  chorus,  was 
individual.  On  the  one  side  the  boy  in  one  figure  is  learning 
to  play  the  lyre,  in  accompaniment  with  his  master,  each 
having  an  instrument ;  in  the  other  figure,  he  is  repeating 
a  portion  of  a  poem  which  the  master  holds  in  book  or  scroll 
form.  On  the  other  side,  the  boy  is  either  learning  to  sing, 
or  is  repeating  a  poem  to  the  accompaniment  by  the  master 
on  the  flute,  or  is  learning  to  play  the  flute ;  in  the  other 
figure  instruction  in  writing  is  represented,  the  master  holding 
in  his  hands  a  triptych  or  folded  wax  tablets,  and  either  cor- 
recting an  exercise  or  setting  a  model.  On  the  wall  are  hung 
musical  instruments,  flute  cases,  rolls  and  satchels  for  books, 
and  on  each  wall  a  cylix  or  drinking  cup  like  that  from  which 
the  illustrations  are  taken. 

Reading,  writing,  and  the  literary  element  of  education  are 
thus  included  in  the  work  of  the  music  school.  Reading  and 
writing  were  introduced  into  the  schools  about  600  B.C.,  but 
long  before  this  the  Homeric  poems  were  taught  orally,  as  they 
continued  to  be  afterwards.  Through  this  means  the  Homeric 
ideals  entered  more  thoroughly  into  the  life  of  the  Athenians 
than  into  that  of  any  other  of  the  Greek  peoples.  Filling  a 
function  similar  to  that  performed  by  the  Bible  in  the  educa- 
tion of  our  own  people  in  earlier  generations,  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey  furnished  them  moral  guidance,  aesthetic  inspira- 
tion, and  practical  direction  for  every  need  in  life.  To  the 
Greek  these  poems  were  but  little  less  the  work  of  inspi- 
ration than  the  Bible  to  the  Hebrew  and  the  Christian ; 
similarly,  when  made  the  basis  of  their  education,  this  lit- 
erature was  the  source  of  all  the  arts  and  sciences.  Though 
they  contained  much  that  could  not  but  be  of  detriment  in 
the  moral  education  of  the  young,  the  explanation  and  use  of 
such  passages  were  much  the  same  as  that  made  in  case  of 


Greek  Education  95 

similar  passages  in  the  Bible.  On  account  of  this  influence, 
however,  Plato  would  eliminate  the  use  of  the  poets  altogether. 
This,  however,  was  an  extreme  view  and  was  called  forth 
by  the  fact  that  actual  practice  had,  by  Plato's  time,  gone 
quite  to  the  other  extreme.  The  simple  unified  educational 
process  connected  wholly  with  the  Homeric  literature,  pro- 
ducing as  it  did,  by  the  close  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  a  people 
that  has  few  equals  in  intellectual  acuteness,  in  aesthetic  ap- 
preciation, in  creativeness,  in  breadth  of  view,  and  in  the 
capacity  for  higher  enjoyment  in  life,  was  supplemented 
toward  the  end  of  this  period  by  an  extensive  use  of  other 
literary  material,  especially  the  works  of  the  gnomic  and 
lyric  poets,  such  as  those  of  Simonides  and  Sappho,  and  by 
the  early  dramatic  writings.  These  new  poets  introduced  new 
types  of  songs  and  declamations.  To  the  extent  that  this 
occurred  during  the  period  of  the  old  education,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  this  literature  was  of  the  highest  type  that 
has  ever  been  produced,  and  that  for  generations  preceding 
our  own  time  it  has  been  considered  the  very  best  material 
that  the  entire  history  of  mankind  has  evolved  for  educa- 
tional purposes.  But  so  far  as  the  fundamental  ideals  of  the 
people  are  concerned,  they  continued  to  be  found  in  and 
presented  to  each  succeeding  generation  through  the  Homeric 
epics. 

The  full  development  of  this  literary  element  is  the  domi- 
nant characteristic  of  the  succeeding  period.  Reading  and 
writing  are  thus  incidental.  The  higher  moral  results  of  this 
education  were  obtained  in  no  small  degree  without  their 
assistance  through  the  possession  of  the  literature,  trans- 
mitted by  the  spoken  word.  The  processes  of  reading  and 
writing  were  acquired  much  as  they  are  with  us,  or  have  been 
until  recent  times.  The  ordinary  alphabetical  and  syllabic 
methods  were  used.  But  in  reading  there  was  much  more  of 
educational  value  than  with  us  because  of  the  important 
training  in  power  of  discrimination  or  in  judgment  in  the  use 


96  History  of  Education 

of  accent,  and  similarly,  since  the  words  were  written  continu- 
ously without  a  break,  in  the  separation  of  one  word  from 
another.  Likewise  there  was  no  punctuation,  so  that  it  was 
necessary  that  the  child  should  get  the  idea  in  order  that  the 
reading  might  even  be  intelligible.  After  some  years  of  this 
practice,  much  emphasis  was  placed  on  beautiful  reading, 
preparatory  to  further  work  in  declamation. 

Arithmetic,  other  branches  of  mathematics  and  drawing, 
were  not  introduced  until  later.  So  from  such  simple  ma- 
terials —  poetry  and  music  —  were  obtained  these  educational 
results,  great  though  simple  in  their  harmony. 

Dancing  remains  as  the  one  element  in  the  old  Greek  cur- 
riculum yet  to  be  mentioned.  This  might  have  been  included 
under  gymnastics,  but  it  is  more  than  physical  exercise  and 
training.  In  a  way  it  might  have  been  included  under  music, 
for  it  is  but  the  expression  through  rhythmical  motion  of 
harmony  of  thought.  It  differed  from  modern  dancing  in 
several  respects.  Since  it  was  the  rhythmical  movement  of 
the  whole  body,  there  was  much  more  of  exercise  leading  to 
harmonious  physical  development.  Since  it  was  chiefly 
religious  or  civic  or  military  in  its  character,  its  aim  was 
not  merely  the  pleasure  of  the  individual.  Having  these 
social  motives,  it  possessed  a  thought  content  as  well  as  an 
emotional  one  and  a  moral  outcome  as  well  as  an  aesthetic 
one.  Such  dancing  for  the  most  part  was  performed  in  com- 
panies, civic  processions,  military  drill,  or  religious  worship, 
or  at  least  in  preparation  for  these,  so  that  it  was  a  training 
in  harmonious  action  with  others.  Dancing  was  the  union  of 
the  harmony  of  thought  and  emotional  experience  expressed 
through  music,  and  the  harmony  of  physical  development 
produced  through  gymnastics.  Continuing  the  quotation 
from  Plato  given  on  page  93,  regarding  the  purpose  of  music 
in  education,  comes  this  statement  concerning  the  purpose  of 
dancing:  "and  rhythm  was  given  by  them  (the  Muses)  for 
the  same  purpose,  on  account  of  the  irregular  and  graceless 


Greek  Education  97 

ways  which  prevail  among  mankind  generally,  and  to  help 
us  against  them." 

The  Moral  Purpose  of  Greek  Education  is  thus  indicated  by 
the  results  they  hoped  to  gain  for  the  use  of  each  element  of 
its  content.  The  quotation  just  given  presents  this  moral 
influence  as  the  purpose  of  dancing.  There  has  already  been 
noted  the  fact  that  the  gymnastic  education  was  designed  to 
produce  certain  moral  results,  such  as  control  of  temper  and 
the  general  subjection  of  the  passions  to  reason;  that  through 
this  training,  patience,  endurance,  fortitude,  courage,  loyalty, 
devotion,  and  a  consideration  for  the  rights  of  others  were  to 
be  developed.  Concerning  the  moral  ends  of  the  musical 
education,  a  sentence  from  the  description  of  Protagoras  will 
bear  repeating :  "  They  (the  music  teachers)  make  rhythm 
and  harmony  familiar  to  the  souls  of  boys,  that  they  may 
grow  more  gentle,  and  graceful,  and  harmonious,  and  so  be 
of  service  both  in  words  and  deeds ;  for  the  whole  life  of  man 
stands  in  need  of  grace  and  harmony."  This  entire  speech, 
which  Plato  puts  in  the  mouth  of  the  Sophist,  is  an  argu- 
ment to  prove  that  virtue  is  teachable  because  the  whole 
purpose  of  Greek  education,  as  organized  in  their  schools,  is 
virtue. 

Such  religious  training  as  the  Athenian  boy  received,  aside 
from  that  given  in  the  training  for  public  religious  services, 
wherein  both  hymns,  choral  dances,  and  elaborate  ceremonial 
procedure  found  place,  he  got  in  the  worship  of  the  house- 
hold gods.  In  one  sense  all  of  this  training  in  the  school 
and  the  home  had  a  religious  bearing,  since  even  the  athletic 
contests  were  in  honor  of  the  gods ;  but  in  another  sense,  as 
a  differentiated  interest  in  life  and  one  connected  largely  with 
the  life  to  come,  the  religious  element  played  little  part  in  the 
Greek  boy's  education.  Less  directly  connected  with  religion 
than  with  most  peoples,  the  moral  education  of  the  Greek 
adopted  one  other  means  quite  unique.  By  the  direct  associ- 
ation of  the  boy  with  an  adult,  as  a  child  with  the  pedagogue 


98  History  of  Education 

and  as  a  youth  with  the  "  inspirer,"  the  Greeks  brought  about 
in  a  most  practical  way  the  moral  education  of  the  young. 
Subject  to  great  dangers  and  abuses,  this  custom  was  never- 
theless productive  of  great  results.  While  the  pedagogue 
was  usually  a  slave  and  hence  often,  though  not  necessarily, 
of  inferior  character,  yet  the  moral  conduct  of  the  boy  was 
carefully  controlled.  On  the  other  hand,  the  relationship 
established  later  in  life,  while  not  so  universal  at  Athens  as 
at  Sparta,  was  purely  a  voluntary  one  and  established  what 
the  Greeks  considered  to  be  the  only  true  bond  between 
teacher  and  pupil,  —  sympathy  concerning  moral  aspirations 
and  mutual  affection  and  affinity.  Thus  while  the  gymnastic 
and  music  teacher  could  give  the  boy  the  elements  of  these 
branches,  the  truly  educative  process,  that  connected  more 
directly  with  the  shaping  of  moral  character,  had  to  be  based 
upon  other  than  economic  grounds.  Though  all  his  teachers 
united  in  giving  him  dignity  of  bearing  and  of  breeding, 
becoming  manners,  grace  of  conduct,  modesty,  reverence  for 
elders,  and  respect  for  laws,  these  special  teachers  furnished 
him  a  direct  model  for  the  formation  of  character  which  the 
boy  must  approximate  through  conscious  and  unconscious 
imitation  acquired  through  constant  association. 

The  Method  of  Greek  Education  finds  in  this  custom  its 
chief  characteristic.  So  far  as  their  education  was  an  imi- 
tation it  was  not,  as  with  the  Oriental,  an  imitation  of  fixed 
form  or  dead  custom,  but  of  a  living  model,  possessed  of 
strong  personality  and  stimulating  to  the  development  and 
expression  of  individuality. 

So  far  as  it  was  a  direct  inculcation  of  certain  qualities,  it 
was  by  the  immediate  example  of  these  virtues  lived  by  the 
teacher.  For  the  Greek  boy  education  always  had  an  attain- 
able aim,  since  he  possessed  a  concrete,  definite  model  by 
which  to  shape  his  character  and  direct  his  conduct.  Educa- 
tion was  not  a  formal,  lifeless  process,  but  a  living  of  a  type  of 
life  full  of  activity  and  pleasure,  of  expression  of  self  and  of 


Greek  Education  99 

attempt  at  concrete  forms  of  virtue  made  real  to  him  through 
the  conduct  of  an  "  inspirer." 

At  the  present  time,  when  so  much  emphasis  is  laid  upon 
expression,  or  the  constructive  and  doing  side  in  education, 
one  other  aspect  of  Greek  method  is  of  special  significance. 
Greek  education  was  first  of  all  a  doing,  only  in  the  second 
place  a  learning  process.  Early  action  was  shaped  directly 
by  authority.  Just  as  our  schools  devote  most  of  their  time 
to  the  shaping  of  the  child's  ideas  by  authority,  so,  too,  the 
Greek  schools  devoted  their  efforts  to  the  shaping  of  conduct. 
In  these  schools  the  boy  learned  to  run  races,  to  jump,  to 
wrestle,  to  excel  in  physical  exercise  and  contests,  to  play 
the  harp,  to  recite  poetry  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  harp, 
to  read  and  declaim,  to  dance.  It  is  all  "  a  doing,"  —  a  forma- 
tion of  habits  of  action.  Only  afterward  does  it  become  a 
learning.  When  the  habit  is  once  formed  by  exercise,  train- 
ing must  be  followed  by  instruction  in  order  to  make  the 
habit  permanent  by  making  it  rational.  Instruction  then 
aims  to  replace  arbitrary  authority  with  reason  as  the  basis 
of  virtuous  conduct.  Instruction  thus  produces  this  harmony 
between  the  inner  life  and  the  outward  action.  The  relation 
between  instruction  and  activity  or  expression,  as  developed 
in  modern  education,  is  thus  reversed.  The  Greeks  held  to 
the  apostolic  doctrine  that  if  one  does  the  deed,  the  knowl- 
edge of  doctrine  will  follow.  The  relation  of  these  two 
fundamentals  to  Greek  thought  is  expressed  by  Aristotle, 
basing  it,  as  he  does,  upon  the  yet  more  fundamental  quality 
of  birth,  or  good  breeding,  in  this  passage :  — 

"  There  are  three  things  which  make  men  good  and  virtu- 
ous :  these  are  nature,  habit,  reason.  In  the  first  place,  every 
one  must  be  born  a  man  and  not  some  other  animal ;  in  the 
second  place,  he  must  have  a  certain  character,  both  of  body 
and  soul.  But  some  qualities  there  is  no  use  in  having  at 
birth,  for  they  are  altered  by  habit,  and  there  are  some  gifts 
of  nature  which  may  be  turned  by  habit  to  good  or  bad. 


ioo  History  of  Education 

Most  animals  lead  a  life  of  nature,  although  in  lesser  par- 
ticulars some  are  influenced  by  habit  as  well.  Man  has 
reason,  in  addition,  and  man  only.  Wherefore  nature,  habit, 
reason  must  be  in  harmony  with  one  another  (for  they  do  not 
always  agree);  men  do  many  things  against  habit  and  nature, 
if  reason  persuades  them  that  they  ought.  We  have  already 
determined  what  natures  are  likely  to  be  most  easily  moulded 
by  the  hands  of  the  legislator.  All  else  is  the  work  of  educa- 
tion ;  we  learn  some  things  by  habit  and  some  by  instruction." 

The  Results  of  Old  Greek  Education  on  state  and  on  individ- 
ual cannot  be  adequately  described  in  brief  terms.  It  may  be 
summed  up  by  stating  that  the  Greek  culture  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury B.C.  was  its  product.  Here  before  individualism  has 
gained  full  sway,  but  while  personality  finds  free  and  full 
expression  in  the  service  of  the  community,  the  highest 
development  of  the  individual  under  the  full  control  of  insti- 
tutional life  finds  one  of  its  richest  expressions  in  history. 
Nevertheless  the  limitation  of  Greek  civilization  previously 
mentioned  must  be  borne  in  mind :  while  Athens  had  become 
a  democracy,  but  a  small  portion  of  the  population,  one  tenth 
at  most,  came  within  the  qualification  for  citizenship.  Slaves 
and  the  non-Athenians  had  no  portion  in  this.  Again,  those 
customs  of  the  Greeks,  such  as  exposure  of  infants,  cruelty  to 
slaves  and  captives,  subjection  of  women,  and  others  quite  as 
repugnant  to  modern  ideas,  were  decided  limitations.  But  of 
the  free  population  itself,  of  the  general  status  of  society,  the 
following  estimate  of  Professor  Mahaffy  is  well  within  the 
limits  of  sober  modern  appreciation :  — 

"  No  doubt  the  Athenian  public  was  by  no  means  so 
learned  as  we  moderns  are;  they  were  ignorant  of  many 
sciences,  of  much  history  —  in  short,  of  a  thousand  results 
of  civilisation,  which  have  since  accrued.  But  in  civilisation 
itself,  in  mental  power,  in  quickness  of  comprehension,  in 
correctness  of  taste,  in  accuracy  of  judgment,  no  modern 
nation,  however  well  instructed,  has  been  able  to  equal  by 
laboured  acquirements  the  inborn  genius  of  the  Greeks.  Let 


Greek  Education  101 

me  add  that  no  modern  theology  has  taught  higher  and  purer 
moral  notions  than  those  of  yEschylus  and  his  school,  devel- 
oped afterwards  by  Socrates  and  Plato." 

A  stable,  free,  and  vigorous  social  organization  was  devel- 
oped ;  the  first  in  which  stability  is  not  purchased  at  the 
price  of  the  suppression  of  the  individual.  Individuality 
found  expression  in  almost  all  those  forms  of  activity  that 
are  valued  in  modern  life  as  interests  that  are  worthy  of 
man's  fullest  devotion.  The  Greeks  possessed  the  ability, 
rare  among  the  most  favored  modern  nations,  of  using  the 
ordinary  activities  of  life  or  the  services  necessary  to  society 
for  the  development  of  the  individuality  of  its  citizens.  Evi- 
denced in  every  phase  of  their  life,  this  characteristic  was 
nowhere  more  strikingly  expressed  than  in  the  games  and 
gymnastic  exercises.  There  was  nothing  compulsory  about 
these  contests  in  games  between  the  various  Greek  states  or 
the  citizens  of  a  given  state.  They  were  of  no  practical  value 
to  the  state,  or  even  to  the  citizen.  They  formed  no  prep- 
aration for  war  or  for  any  immediate  service  to  the  state. 
They  were  but  expressions  of  the  personality  of  the  citizen. 
Through  them  the  individual  declared  his  -freedom  from  the 
limitations  imposed  upon  man  by  nature  and  indicated  his 
superiority  over  his  fellows.  For  this  he  received  no  reward 
save  the  plaudits  of  the  multitude  and  the  esteem  of  his 
associates  due  to  one  who  had  thus  achieved  some  form  of 
personal  excellence. 

In  place  of  the  extremely  realistic  interpretation  of  the 
elements  of  virtue  or  nobility  characteristic  of  the  earlier 
ages,  by  the  close  of  this  period,  and  as  a  product  of  its 
education,  worth  has  become  a  purely  moral  quality.  While 
noble  birth  and  wealth  continue  in  ordinary  thought  to  be  a 
presupposition  of  virtue,  in  their  highest  thought  it  transcends 
all  material  qualifications.  Euripides,  one  of  the  greatest 
products  of  this  century  and  of  this  education,  expresses  this 
view  in  his  Electro, :  — 


IO2  History  of  Education 

"  There  is  no  plummet  line  to  measure  excellence,  for  tht 
varying  natures  of  men  confuse  our  reckoning.  Oft  have  I 
seen  the  son  of  an  honourable  father  nothing  worth,  and 
again  good  children  sprung  from  evil  parents ;  I  have  seen 
leanness  in  the  soul  of  the  rich,  and  a  large  heart  in  the  body 
of  the  poor.  How  then  can  we  surely  discriminate  the  good  ? 
Is  it  by  the  test  of  wealth  ?  Then  should  we  indeed  employ 
an  unjust  judge.  Is  it  by  poverty  ?  But  this  too  has  its 
weakness,  and  makes  men  mean  by  its  necessities.  Shall  I 
take  the  test  of  arms  ?  Who,  looking  to  the  array  of  battle 
could  testify  to  real  worth  ?  It  is  better  to  leave  these  things 
undetermined  ;  for  here  is  a  man,  not  great  among  his  fellows 
nor  supported  by  the  pride  of  family,  yet  he  has  been  found 
among  the  crowd  a  man  of  the  most  sterling  worth.  Will 
not  ye  learn  wisdom,  that  speculate  full  of  vain  theories,  and 
will  ye  not  judge  men  by  personal  experience,  and  the  noble 
by  their  characters  ? " 

NEW  GREEK  EDUCATION:  TRANSITIONAL  PERIOD. 
Character  of  the  Period.  — The  old  Greek  education  resulted 
during  the  fifth  century  B.C.  in  a  brilliant  period  of  personal 
achievement  and  national  progress  which  has  never  been 
surpassed  in  history.  The  culmination  of  this  period  was 
the  Age  of  Pericles.  During  and  immediately  preceding 
this  period,  the  highest  products  of  Greek  civilization  were 
attained.  In  politics  such  men  as  Themistocles  and  Pericles 
controlled  her  destinies ;  in  art  the  work  of  Phidias  and 
Myron  and  the  construction  of  the  Parthenon  are  evidences 
of  their  taste  and  their  achievement.  Herodotus  and  Thucyd- 
ides  laid  the  foundation  of  the  science,  though  to  the  Greeks 
it  was  an  art,  of  historical  writing.  The  tragic  drama  reached 
its  perfection  in  the  work  of  ^Eschylus,  Sophocles,  and 
Euripides,  and  comedy  in  the  plays  of  Aristophanes.  In 
every  aspect  of  human  activity  and  human  thought  there  was 
a  similar  endeavor  at  creation  and  an  achievement  that  is 
beyond  comparison  with  that  of  preceding  historic  periods. 
But  this  period  of  fruition  was  as  well  one  of  transition  and 
of  origins.  While  the  old  education  laid  the  foundation  for 


Greek  Education  103 

these  achievements,  it  was  insufficient  to  meet  the  demands 
of  the  times  and  altogether  inadequate  for  future  needs. 
The  life  of  this  period  made  so  much  greater  demands  upon 
the  individual  and  offered  so  much  greater  opportunities  for 
personal  achievement,  that  it  demanded  an  education  suited 
to  the  period,  —  one  wherein  the  chief  emphasis  was  laid 
upon  individual  development  rather  than  upon  service  to 
the  city  state  and  wherein  the  individual  was  not  merged  in 
the  citizen.  The  answer  to  this  demand  was  the  new  Greek 
Education. 

Transitional  Forces.  —  There  were  at  work  in  Greek  society 
during  the  fifth  century  a  number  of  forces  that  need  to  be 
mentioned  for  us  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  new  Greek 
education.  Some  of  them  may  be  considered  as  causes  of 
the  new  education,  some  of  them,  at  least  to  an  extent,  as  a 
result :  all  were  a  part  of  the  same  general  change  in  the 
character  of  life. 

Political.  —  The  most  fundamental  of  these  causal  changes 
was  political.  Toward  the  close  of  the  sixth  century  the  old 
aristocratic  constitution  of  Solon  was  replaced  (509  B.C.)  by 
the  democratic  one  of  Clisthenes,  which  admitted  to  citizen- 
ship all  the  free  inhabitants  of  Attica.  These  now  served  in 
the  popular  law  courts  or  assemblies.  Many  of  the  officers 
were  to  be  chosen  by  lot  as  in  the  case  of  the  modern  jury. 
To  the  popular  assembly  was  given  the  power  to  ostracize, 
or  banish  by  secret  ballot,  any  citizen  considered  dangerous 
to  the  public  welfare.  Under  this  system  of  free  govern- 
ment the  political  power,  the  material  prosperity,  and  the 
culture  of  the  citizens  increased  with  rapid  strides.  Under 
this  government,  too,  the  hordes  of  the  Persians  were  over- 
come in  the  short  period  from  500-479  B.C.,  with  the  result  of 
enhancing  the  prestige  of  Athens,  the  power  of  the  people, 
and  of  increasing  the  demands  for  opportunities  for  indi 
vidual  effort  and  achievement.  These  demands  were  partly 
met  by  the  greater  concessions  to  the  democracy  made  by 


104  History  of  Education 

Pericles.  The  growth  of  democracy  had  been  the  triumph 
of  the  trading  and  commercial  classes,  who  were  now  pos- 
sessed of  the  rights  of  citizenship,  with  the  result  of  opening 
up  a  great  variety  of  new  opportunities  for  individual  advance. 
Leisure  time  with  its  resulting  opportunities  now  came  to 
depend  upon  wealth.  Wealth  which  could  be  acquired  by 
all  with  the  requisite  ability,  and  the  attending  privileges  of 
citizenship  were  no  longer  the  possession  of  a  class  restricted 
in  numbers  and  in  initiative. 

A  further  change  of  fundamental  character  grew  out  of 
the  successful  leadership  of  Athens  during  the  Persian  wars 
in  the  formation  of  the  Delian  league  (477  B.C.).  At  the 
close  of  the  war  this  league  was  converted  into  what 
amounted  to  an  empire,  and  the  treasuries  of  the  league 
were  converted  into  funds  used  by  the  city  of  Athens  for 
its  own  glorification.  In  the  period  between  the  close  of  the 
Persian  War  and  the  opening  of  the  war  between  Athens  and 
Sparta,  the  democracy  of  Athens  was  the  imperial  master 
of  all  the  surrounding  cities  and  island  states  of  the  ^Egean 
and  of  the  Ionian  states  of  Asia  Minor.  This  mastery  was 
not  gained  by  force  but  by  statesmanship  ;  and  by  diplomacy 
this  leadership  was  kept.  In  the  management  of  these 
affairs,  in  the  determination  of  policies  in  the  assemblies,  in 
the  control  and  disbursement  of  the  funds  there  was  called 
for  by  the  Athenian  state  an  entirely  new  type  of  worth  in 
the  citizen.  The  political  skill  and  argumentative  and  per- 
suasive ability  that  hitherto  had  found  scope  only  in  the 
council  and  the  assemblies  and  courts  of  restricted  powers, 
now  found  a  field  for  exercise  if  not  world-wide  in  extent  at 
least  possessing  all  the  inherent  possibilities  for  developing 
the  powers  of  political  leadership  and  statecraft  found  in 
complex  modern  societies.  The  old  education  had  afforded 
no  preparation  Ii>r  this  new  life. 

Social  and  Economic.  —  Through  the  leadership  in  the  Per. 
sian  War  and  in  the  Delian  league,  Athens  had  now  become 


Greek  Education  105 

the  head  of  the  common  brotherhood  of  the  Greek  people. 
In  the  growing  interchange  of  ideas,  disseminated  by  traders, 
by  political  embassies,  by  travelers,  who  now  became  very 
numerous,  and  by  an  altogether  new  class  of  teachers,  —  the 
sophists,  —  that  now  came  to  possess  formidable  influence, 
this  common  brotherhood  was  cemented.  But  it  is  a  com- 
munity of  ideas  and  of  social  life  which  results  in  the  coming 
centuries  in  a  common  Greek  civilization  no  longer  peculiar 
to  Athens  or  to  chosen  cities,  but  to  the  race  as  a  whole.  At 
the  same  time  the  political  unity  and  even  political  indepen- 
dence is  lost  through  most  disgraceful  civil  strifes  and  local 
wars,  until  the  old  regime  is  replaced  by  a  unity  in  govern- 
ment imposed  from  without. 

This  merging  of  Athenian  life  into  the  greater  unity  of  a 
Greek  life  as  a  whole,  this  extension  of  the  economic  inter- 
ests leading  to  a  toleration  of  foreign  traders  and  an  increas- 
ing tendency  upon  the  part  of  Athenian  citizens  to  visit 
foreign  marts,  this  sending  of  embassies,  and  the  new  custom 
among  the  Athenians  of  visiting  foreign  or  other  Grecian 
lands  for  mere  curiosity's  sake,  led  to  a  much  broader  toler- 
ance of  novel  ideas  and  strange  practices  than  had  ever  been 
the  case  before.  Tolerance  of  new  ideas  led  to  criticism  of 
old  ones,  and  finally  to  modification  or  rejection  of  much  that 
had  been  characteristic  or  even  fundamental  in  previous 
periods.  Athens,  from  being  a  conservative,  isolated  town, 
now  became  a  community  situated  in  "the  highway  of  the 
world,"  and  a  meeting  ground  for  all  novel  ideas.  That 
there  was  a  breaking  up  of  old  customs,  and  that  the  conser- 
vative forces  were  aghast  at  the  revolution,  is  not  to  be  mar- 
veled at. 

Literary. — A  change  that  is  not  so  much  a  cause  as  it  is 
an  indication  of  the  deep-seated  modifications  in  the  thought 
life  of  the  Athenian  people,  is  to  be  found  in  the  character 
of  their  literature.  The  earlier  half  of  the  fifth  century  was 
dominated  in  literature  by  the  tragedy.  This  form  of  the 


io6  History  of  Education 

drama  dealt  with  fundamental  ethical,  social,  and  religious 
problems ;  its  characters  were  the  gods  and  mythical  heroes ; 
its  form  was  that  of  the  highest  art ;  its  occasion  was  that  of 
religious  worship.  The  problem  underlying  all  tragedy  was 
that  of  the  conflict  between  duty  and  interest :  so  that  its 
very  nature  indicates  that  the  problem  fundamental  to  the 
education  of  the  new  period  had  become  a  conscious  one  in 
their  ethical  thought  before  it  became  a  practical  one  in  the 
field  of  educational  endeavor.  Opposed  to  the  older  concep- 
tion of  the  duty  of  the  individual  to  subordinate  his  interests 
to  those  of  the  state,  the  characteristic  of  the  new  Greek 
education  was  this  greater  emphasis  upon  personal  interests. 
The  dominance  of  comedy  in  the  latter  half  of  the  century  is 
of  yet  greater  significance,  for  in  its  satire  on  the  pretensions, 
the  shams,  the  follies,  the  extravagances,  and  the  corruption 
common  to  every  phase  of  life,  it  indicates  that  in  real  life 
self-interest  had  won  the  victory  over  duty.  Since  the  new 
education  was  but  a  corresponding  emphasis  on  individualism, 
this  change  in  literature  paralleled  the  one  in  education. 

The  comedy  deals  with  problems  or  incidents  in  the  daily  life 
of  the  people,  —  of  domestic  unhappiness,  of  the  relation  of  the 
sexes,  of  political  corruption,  of  educational  formalism  and 
pretense :  its  characters  are  those  of  real  life :  its  treatment 
is  of  the  freest,  lending  itself  to  great  exaggeration :  whether 
it  upholds  the  old  and  ridicules  the  new  or  the  reverse,  its 
function  is  to  instruct  and  amuse.  Thus  it  loses  much  of  its 
religious  character.  Other  forms  of  art  indicate  the  same 
change.  The  severity  and  grandeur  of  the  early  art  of  the 
Greeks  gives  place  in  the  transitional  period  to  a  studied 
grace ;  and  when  the  ideas  of  the  new  period  are  fully  tri- 
umphant, a  perfection  in  the  beauty  of  form  in  turn  degen- 
erates into  a  mere  study  of  effect  and  of  adornment. 

Moral  and  Religious.  —  This  change  in  the  drama  and  in 
art  indicates  a  corresponding  one  in  morals  and  religion. 
The  moral  customs  of  the  Greeks  had  found  a  partial  basis 


Greek  Education  107 

in  the  authority  of  the  gods  of  the  old  mythology,  spiritual 
ized  as  they  had  been  in  the  course  of  time.  This  religion, 
while  not  so  fundamental  to  their  social  structure  as  the 
religions  of  Oriental  societies  or  even  as  their  own  earlier 
genetic  religion,  yet  furnished  certain  support  for  their  state, 
for  the  sanctity  of  the  family,  and  for  the  obligation  to  live  a 
life  not  of  ease,  self-indulgence,  or  even  self-aggrandizement, 
but  of  devotion  to  the  common  good.  With  the  rejection  of 
their  old  mythology  and  the  mere  formal  retention  of  the  wor- 
ship of  the  household  gods,  the  very  basis  for  the  morality  of 
the  old  genetic  type  was  gone,  and  there  was  no  corresponding 
development  of  rationality  sufficient  for  the  multitude  to  re- 
place the  basis  of  a  moral  life.  In  the  later  tragedy,  in  the 
comedy,  and  in  the  didactic  poets  the  fortunes  of  men  are  no 
longer  determined,  as  in  the  early  drama  and  the  still  earlier 
epics,  by  the  interposition  of  the  gods  or  the  will  of  heaven. 
Natural  causes  and  human  calculation  now  replace  the  re- 
ligious basis  of  morality.  The  Greeks,  as  a  people,  never 
found  any  connection  between  the  life  to  come  and  conduct  in 
this  life;  now,  with  the  removal  of  all  present  interposition 
of  the  gods  in  the  life  of  man,  there  developed  that  complete 
divorce  of  morality  from  religion  that  gave  the  new  teachers  of 
any  religion  or  any  moral  creed  an  opportunity  that  was  not 
neglected.  Extreme  skepticism  and  unreasoned  conservatism 
come  into  conflict,  with  no  question  as  to  where  the  ultimate 
victory  would  lie.  Skepticism  in  belief  leads  to  freedom,  even 
license,  in  conduct.  The  new  teachers,  becoming  specifically 
teachers  of  morals,  reject  altogether  the  old  basis  of  morality, 
and  along  with  that  many  of  the  traditional  standards.  As 
a  consequence,  the  orderliness,  the  dignity,  the  gravity,  the 
devotion  to  the  public  need  of  the  old  Greek  life  is  replaced 
by  a  greater  frivolity  of  disposition,  a  disposition  to  place  per- 
sonal gratification  above  public  service,  and  a  general  tendency, 
evidenced  even  in  the  views  of  the  poets,  to  reject  the  old 
moral  ideas  and  even  to  hold  that  the  immoral  cause  of 


io8  History  of  Education 

action  has  often  much  to  be  said  in  its  favor  when  judged 
from  the  purely  rational  point  of  view. 

Philosophical.  —  One  other  phase  of  the  change  in  the 
thought  life  of  the  times  is  to  be  noted,  since  it  forms 
an  integral  part  of  the  general  educational  change.  Since 
the  mythological  tales  of  the  earlier  poets,  even  when  inter 
preted  through  rationalistic  principles  as  purely  allegorical, 
no  longer  offered  a  sufficient  logical  basis  for  the  belief  of 
the  times,  the  higher  thought  of  the  Greeks  —  their  phi- 
losophy —  had  been  directed  toward  finding  some  explana- 
tion of  the  material  universe,  its  origin,  its  constituent 
elements,  its  forces,  and  its  relation  to  man.  In  time  these 
explanations  offered  by  Anaximander,  Heracleitus,  Zeno,  the 
Atomists,  etc.,  were  cast  aside  as  unworthy  of  acceptance 
by  the  new  school  of  thought.  The  new  teachers,  the 
sophists,  followed  to  a  considerable  extent  by  the  philoso- 
phers, Socrates  and  Plato,  looked  upon  the  whole  procedure 
of  the  ancient  philosophers  with  skeptical  eyes.  Some  of 
these  found  the  desired  explanation  in  a  noumenal  existence,  — 
in  a  series  of  forms  back  of  the  phenomenal  worlds.  To  the 
sophists,  who  questioned  all  things,  such  knowledge  of  the 
material  universe  was  impossible  and  the  search  for  it  un- 
profitable. It  is  in  connection  with  such  discussions,  that 
Gorgias  posited  that  nothing  exists ;  or  even  if  it  did  exist, 
it  could  not  be  known ;  or  if  existent  and  knowable,  it  could 
not  be  communicated  to  others. 

It  is  evident  that  the  old  philosophy,  dealing  with  such 
subjects  as  it  did,  was  unable  to  furnish  any  basis  for  con- 
duct or  give  any  practical  preparation  for  the  needs  of  life. 
With  the  rejection  of  the  religious  basis  of  morality  the 
demand  now  made  upon  philosophy  was  to  furnish  a  guide 
to  conduct,  —  a  basis  for  the  practical  life.  The  new  thought 
in  its  search  for  truth  turned  its  attention  inward,  and  in  the 
thought  life  attempted  to  determine  the  nature  of  reality. 
The  sophists  held  that  "  man  was  the  measure  of  all  things ;  " 


Greek  Education  109 

that  is,  that  the  test  of  truth,  of  reality,  and  the  very  nature 
of  knowledge  was  altogether  subjective  and  hence  that  these 
fundamentals  were  after  all  but  relative.  The  later  phi- 
losophers were  not  content  with  this  superficial  judgment 
but  took  up  the  inquiry  and  pushed  it  further.  The  new 
tendency  in  thought  —  the  direction  of  attention  toward  the 
universe  of  ideas  and  emotions,  instead  of  the  mere  specu- 
lative attempt  to  interpret  a  priori  the  nature  of  the  material 
universe  —  is  the  feature  of  the  times  to  be  noted  here. 
From  this  tendency  came  the  formulation  of  the  problems 
that  yet  remain  the  fundamentals  of  philosophy;  from  it 
also  came  the  formulation  of  the  sciences  of  ethics,  of  logic, 
and  of  the  earliest  conscious  attempts  to  work  out  the  solu- 
tion of  the  fundamental  educational  problem.  The  develop- 
ment of  free  personality  under  moral  law,  giving  widest  scope 
to  individuality  along  with  the  fullest  acknowledgment  of 
obligation  to  one's  fellows  through  institutional  life,  consti- 
tutes this  problem  in  education  as  also  in  ethics.  Before 
discussing  the  statement  of  this  problem  as  made  by  the 
Greeks,  a  further  account  of  the  transition  to  the  new 
education  is  desirable. 

The  Demands  upon  Education  made  by  these  social  changes, 
political,  economic,  ethical,  literary,  and  the  like,  were  two- 
fold. There  was  first  a  demand  for  greater  freedom  for  the 
individual  in  action  and  thought  to  correspond  with  this 
growth  of  freedom  in  the  political  sphere.  Second,  there 
was  a  demand  for  a  training  or  an  education  that  would 
enable  the  individual  to  take  advantage  of  the  unprece- 
dented opportunities  for  personal  aggrandizement  and 
achievement.  There  was  now  demanded  ability  to  discuss 
all  sorts  of  social,  political,  economic,  and  scientific  or  meta- 
physical questions  ;  to  argue  in  public  in  the  market  place 
or  in  the  law  courts  ;  to  declaim  in  a  formal  manner  upon 
almost  any  topic ;  to  amuse  or  even  instruct  the  populace 
upon  topics  of  interest  or  questions  of  the  day;  to  take 


no  History  of  Education 

part  in  the  many  diplomatic  embassies  and  political  mis- 
sions of  the  times,  —  the  ability,  in  fact,  to  shine  in  a  demo- 
cratic society  much  like  our  own  and  to  control  the  votes 
and  command  the  approval  of  an  intelligent  populace  where 
the  function  of  printing  press,  telegraph,  railroad,  and  all 
modern  means  of  communication  were  performed  through 
public  speech  and  private  discourse,  and  where  the  legal, 
ecclesiastical,  and  other  professional  classes  of  teachers  did 
not  exist.  The  Athenian  state  made  no  provision  whatever 
for  higher  intellectual  training  of  a  formal  kind,  but  it  did 
offer  opportunity  for  this  in  the  freedom  it  gave  the  individ- 
ual during  the  period  of  his  training  in  the  gymnasium,  and 
after  the  military  training  of  the  ephebic  period.  No  means, 
however,  existed  in  Athenian  society  as  organized  under 
the  old  regime  for  giving  to  the  individual  such  training  as 
would  provide  for  personal  achievement  in  place  of  civic 
service.  Such  instrumentalities  now  appeared  in  the  form  of 
a  new  class  of  teachers,  the  sophists. 

The  Sophists  have  long  been  considered  as  teachers  of  im- 
morality who  were  responsible  for  the  disintegrating  tenden- 
cies in  Greek  thought  and  the  demoralizing  tendencies  in 
Greek  life  in  the  period  we  are  now  considering.  Even  yet 
a  sophist  is  defined  as  "  an  impostrous  pretender  to  knowl- 
edge ;  a  man  who  employs  what  he  knows  to  be  a  fallacy  for 
the  purpose  of  deceit  and  of  getting  money."  Primarily  by  the 
work  of  the  historian  Grote,  reenforced  by  the  studies  of  later 
historians  and  philosophers  such  as  Zeller,  it  has  been  shown 
that  this  view  was  largely  due  to  the  prejudices  shown  by 
Socrates  and  Plato  against  a  class  of  teachers  among  whom 
they  themselves  were  numbered,  but  from  which  they  were 
distinguishable,  not  so  much  by  their  contemporaries  as  by 
later  students,  who  detect  the  difference  in  their  completed 
work  from  the  ideas  of  the  sophists,  in  certain  fundamental 
characteristics  to  be  noted  hereafter. 

Educationally  the  sophists  were  Greek  teachers,  not  usu- 


Greek  Education  1 1 1 

ally  native  Athenians,  who  saw  the  defects  in  the  existing 
organization  of  education  at  Athens  and  offered  to  the  youth 
of  the  city  the  training  so  much  in  demand  as  a  preparation 
for  a  career  of  personal  aggrandizement  in  the  political  and 
social  life  of  the  times.  The  sophists  were  students  of  affairs 
who  through  wide  travel  and  contact  with  Grecian  and  Orien- 
tal life  in  many  centers  had  picked  up  the  current  learning 
concerning  natural  forces  and  phenomena,  political  life,  social 
institutions,  and  popular  questions  of  the  day,  especially  those 
concerning  principles  of  conduct  and  morality.  Possessing  a 
rhetorical  power  in  formal  debate  and  private  discussion  that 
was  a  result  of  a  training  and  experience,  neither  of  which 
were  to  be  obtained  at  Athens,  these  men  quickly  secured 
attention,  built  up  a  great  reputation  and  through  their  will- 
ingness and  ability  to  impart  this  knowledge  and  the  rhetorical 
training  in  its  use,  they  soon  came  to  exercise  a  tremendous 
influence  in  Athenian  life.  To  be  sure  many  of  them  gave 
merely  a  formal  training  that  often  consisted  in  furnish- 
ing their  pupils  with  set  speeches  upon  given  topics  to  be 
repeated  upon  definite  occasions,  such  as  trials  before  the 
courts,  or  with  smart  sayings  and  fragmentary  information  to 
be  used  whenever  chance  opportunity  offered.  Many,  on  the 
other  hand,  gave  a  more  consistent  and  thorough  course  in 
the  study  of  questions  of  the  day  and  in  the  rudimentary 
natural  and  historical  sciences  of  the  times,  and  a  training  in 
dialectic  power  through  discussion  and  in  rhetorical  power 
through  public  speech.  For  the  most  part,  however,  they 
themselves  taught  through  formal  discourse  or  lecture ;  this 
more  thorough  training  was  a  later  development.  Two 
characteristics  rendered  them  especially  disliked  by  the 
thinking  Greeks,  especially  those  of  a  conservative  character ; 
the  one  was  the  profession  of  their  ability,  as  indicated  by 
their  title,  wise  men,  to  give  information  on  any  subject ;  the 
other  was  their  demand  for  remuneration  for  their  services. 
With  the  charlatans  among  their  number,  —  and  they  were 


H2  History  of  Education 

probably  not  a  few,  —  this  took  the  form  of  offering  to  impart 
to  any  one  any  subject  or  any  ability,  if  the  remuneration  was 
sufficient.  Since  power  in  argumentation  constituted  the  great 
desideratum,  it  was  the  boast  of  many  of  them  that  they  could 
give  one  the  ability  to  argue  either  side  of  any  question  with 
equal  facility.  These  two  characteristics  ran  counter  to  some 
of  the  fundamental  and  most  worthy  traits  of  old  Greek  life : 
the  former  violated  their  principle  of  harmony  and  reverence 
and  bordered  on  the  insolent ;  the  latter  their  idea  that  devel- 
opment of  character,  which  was  the  inclusive  aim  of  educa- 
tion, could  result  only  where  the  relation  between  teacher  and 
pupil  was  based  upon  mutual  esteem  and  regard  and  where 
the  financial  nexus  was  altogether  wanting.  Consequently 
there  arose  toward  the  sophists  a  most  violent  antipathy  ex- 
pressed by  all  the  writers  with  conservative  inclination,  and  a 
natural  desire  upon  the  part  of  Plato  and  the  members  of  the 
philosophical  group  to  differentiate  themselves  from  the 
despised  class,  however  much  they  might  have  in  common 
with  it. 

Though  the  sophists  gave  information  concerning  phe- 
nomena of  nature,  science,  and  society,  and  in  fact  almost  all 
topics  that  would  receive  treatment  in  the  modern  newspaper 
and  magazine,  yet  their  chief  concern,  because  it  was  the 
chief  interest  of  the  populace,  was  in  questions  of  personal 
and  political  conduct,  —  questions  of  a  moral  nature.  So 
radically  did  their  views  differ  from  the  old  Greek  beliefs, 
that  they  were  accused  then  and  often  since  have  been 
accused  of  teaching  immorality.  Undoubtedly  some  of 
them,  since  they  were  wholly  irresponsible,  were  guilty  of 
holding  and  expressing  views  subversive  of  all  the  old  Greek 
ideals  and  of  the  principles  of  morals  commonly  recog- 
nized at  all  times.  But  such  was  not  their  whole  purpose  or 
their  general  characteristic.  What  they  did  do  was  to  dis- 
cuss moral  questions  and  to  settle  them  from  a  point  of  view 
not  religious  and  social,  but  so  rationalistic  that  to  the  old 


Greek  Education  113 

Greek  it  amounted  to  immorality.  On  the  other  hand,  their 
moral  teachings  placed  an  unprecedented  emphasis  upon 
individuality.  As  a  class  they  did  not  teach  immorality,  for 
they  held  no  common  system  of  views  ;  the  only  idea  common 
to  all  was  that  there  were  no  such  universal  ideas,  or  standards 
of  conduct,  but  that,  in  the  words  of  Protagoras,  one  of  the 
greatest  of  them,  "  Man  is  the  measure  of  all  things."  As 
this  meant  the  individual  man,  the  tendency  long  developing 
in  Greek  society  toward  giving  individuality  more  and  more 
emphasis  in  moral  life  and  in  the  educational  process,  here 
finds  its  culmination,  for  this  is  pure  individualism. 

The  sophists  taught,  then,  that  the  individual  was  to  deter- 
mine his  own  ends  in  life ;  his  own  standards  of  conduct  in 
accomplishing  these  ends ;  the  extent  of  his  services  to  the 
state ;  of  his  observance  of  the  old  customs  and  moral  tradi- 
tions, of  his  sacrifice  of  time,  and  wealth,  and  energy  for  the 
common  good.  Naturally  many  found  no  basis  for  continuing 
the  old  customs,  and  a  period  of  great  laxity  and  even  disso- 
luteness followed.  Many  lacked  the  rational  power  to  find  a 
sufficient  basis  for  moral  conduct  or  sufficient  moral  stamina 
to  observe  if  they  believed  in  such.  The  immorality  of  the 
sophists,  then,  was  a  negative  one,  to  be  found  in  their  exalta- 
tion of  the  individual.  The  individual  now  found  a  place 
distinct  from  and  above  his  life  as  a  citizen.  From  the  point 
of  view  of  the  teachings  of  the  times,  this  life,  devoted  to  his 
own  development  and  the  expansion  of  his  own  personality, 
was  of  greater  moral  worth,  than  was  one  of  observance  of 
the  customs  wherein  was  dominant  the  morality  of  the  city 
state  and  the  old  Greek  life.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the 
old  Greek,  the  sophist  tendency  was  an  immoral  one ;  from  the 
point  of  view  of  modern  thought  it  is  seen  to  be  a  necessary 
negative  or  critical  stage,  destruction  of  the  old,  but  clearing 
the  ground  and  even  laying  the  foundation  for  the  new.  At 
the  worst  it  was  in  education  but  a  practical  and  utilitarian 
tendency  toward  giving  the  individual  full  freedom  in  the  life 


H4  History  of  Education 

of  the  times,  and  thus  affording  scope  for  the  development 
of  personality.  Later  thought  was  to  furnish  for  this  wider 
personality  a  more  stable  basis  than  could  be  obtained  in  the 
natural  reaction  following  the  rejection  of  the  old  which  so 
limited  and  restricted  the  individual  in  the  use  of  his  own 
powers  and  the  exercise  of  his  own  judgment.  At  best,  the 
work  of  the  sophist  which,  as  defined  by  Socrates,  was  to 
teach  young  men  "to  think,  speak,  and  act"  was  no  unworthy 
motive  and  no  insignificant  service  to  perform  for  the  state. 
Only  in  two  respects,  to  which  the  modern  world  can  hardly 
object,  since  both  are  accepted  in  modern  education,  can  the 
sophists  as  a  class  be  held  to  be  teachers  of  immorality.  They 
did  believe  that  morality  and  wisdom  could  be  taught  theoreti- 
cally, whereas  in  the  old  Greek  education  these  had  been  the 
products  of  a  practical  training  in  certain  activities ;  and  they 
did  hold  that  the  basis  of  morality  was  subjective;  —  was  to 
be  found  within  one's  own  intellectual  and  moral  being ;  was 
to  be  based  on  reason  and  not,  as  in  the  old  period,  upon  cus- 
tom and  tradition,  as  revealed  in  their  religious  thought  and 
institutional  life.  Nevertheless,  these  very  views  did  much  to 
encourage  the  tendency  to  unrestricted  individualism  and  con- 
tributed much  to  the  demoralization  of  Athens.  The  term 
sophist  continued  in  use  for  many  generations,  and,  even  in 
the  Christian  centuries,  continued  to  be  applied  to  the  teachers 
in  the  universities  as  practically  synonymous  with  the  modern 
term  professor;  yet  the  sophist  in  the  original  sense,  as  a 
teacher  attached  to  no  institution  and  to  no  one  locality,  one 
who  professed  to  give  instruction  on  all  subjects,  was  character- 
istic of  only  about  a  century.  We  have  given  the  date  of  the 
Macedonian  conquest  (338  B.C.)  as  the  close  of  this  transitional 
period,  since  by  this  time  the  overthow  of  the  independent 
political  life  of  Greece  made  evident  the  fact  that  individual- 
ism had  conquered,  and  that  education  would  no  longer  be 
dominated  by  the  state.  However,  a  generation  or  more 
before  this  time  the  sophists  had  become  differentiated  into 


Greek  Education  115 

two  much  more  distinct  classes   of  teachers  typical  of  the 
cosmopolitan  period  of  the  new  Greek  education. 

Resulting  Changes  in  Education. — In  Higher  Education 
this  change  is  most  clearly  seen  and  may  be  most  briefly 
stated.  That  period  in  the  old  Greek  education,  from  sixteen 
to  eighteen,  which  had  been  devoted  to  physical  training  and 
indirectly  to  political  training  was  now  devoted  more  and  more 
to  purely  intellectual  training  of  a  higher  type.  Much  of  this, 
as  has  already  been  explained,  was  of  a  purely  formal  char- 
acter and  related  to  the  development  of  rhetorical  powers. 
In  private  rooms,  on  the  street,  or  in  the  gymnasia,  the 
sophist  collected  his  body  of  adherents  or  students,  imparted 
the  knowledge,  and  gave  the  training  desired.  While  this 
did  not  disarrange  the  old  organization,  it  introduced  a  new 
phase  which  now  received  the  greater  attention.  It  has  been 
noted  that  the  ephebic  training  from  eighteen  to  twenty 
was  not  universal,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  new  sophist 
training,  since  it  offered  a  far  more  practical  training  than 
the  old,  drew  largely  from  the  ephebes.  Certainly  in  the 
period  following,  that  of  young  manhood,  the  sophists  found 
a  yet  greater  opportunity  and  drew  to  their  private  schools 
many  who  had  entered  the  state  of  full  citizenship.  The 
very  fact  that  these  private  schools  could  obtain  such  a 
hold  is  an  evidence  that  individual  interests  were  then 
followed  to  an  extent  altogether  unknown  in  the  preceding 
period.  Within  a  century  these  new  motives  controlling 
education  became  so  generally  accepted  that  the  earlier  type 
of  teacher,  moved  by  desire  of  gain  and  the  attainment  of  a 
reputation  based  upon  intellectual  ability  and  success,— 
motives  wholly  legitimate  with  the  modern  teacher  but  much 
in  question  then,  —  had  developed  from  this  irregular  type  of 
instructor  into  a  definite  teaching  profession. 

In  content  the  transition  from  the  old  Greek  to  the  new 
Greek  education  is  evidenced  by  many  changes.  In  this 
higher  education  of  an  intellectual  character,  it  has  been 


1 1 6  History  of  Education 

seen  that  literature,  or  literary  training  at  least,  formed  the 
basis.  But  it  is  literature  in  a  different  sense,  for  it  is 
literature  now  studied  from  the  point  of  view  of  form  rather 
than  of  content  and  intended  for  use  from  the  point  of  view 
of  pleasing  and  persuading  the  multitude  rather  than  from 
that  of  instructing  it  in  traditional  moral  ways.  To  the 
sophists  is  due  the  formulation  of  the  grammatical  and 
rhetorical  study  of  language  and  literature.  Much  of  their 
instruction  related  to  the  choice  of  words,  the  proper  forma- 
tion of  phrases  —  to  grammatical  structure  and  rhetorical 
effect.  Most  of  the  more  important  sophists  wrote  treatises 
on  grammar. 

In  the  Palcestra  and  Music  School.  — The  content  of  the 
lower  schools  also  underwent  a  change.  The  tendency  of 
sophistic  teaching  to  develop  in  the  pupils  self-assertive- 
ness,  a  love  of  pleasure,  glibness  of  speech,  and  even  an 
unscrupulousness  of  conduct,  finds  its  effects  in  turn  in  the 
education  of  children.  The  same  emphasis  upon  formal 
literature,  and  hence  an  increasing  tendency  to  introduce  the 
later  didactic  poets,  offering  opportunity  for  hair-splitting 
discussions ;  the  tendency  to  introduce  new  musical  instru- 
ments, the  cithera  with  a  greater  number  of  strings,  the  flute 
and  other  wind  instruments,  or  at  least  more  complicated 
ones  ;  the  use  of  new  types  of  music,  such  as  the  Lydian  and 
Phrygian  airs,  aiming  more  at  the  subjective,  pleasurable 
effect ;  the  use  of  the  warm  bath ;  the  relaxation  of  the 
severity  of  the  physical  training,  —  all  these  go  to  show  a 
greater  love  of  ease,  an  effort  after  pleasure,  an  attempt  to 
please  the  individual  and  to  allow  him  to  gratify  his  own 
desires.  The  extent  to  which  each  of  these  changes  would 
develop  individualism  to  the  detriment  of  the  old  rigidly 
moral  training  is  evident.  While  it  is  not  safe  to  accept 
unreservedly  the  interpretation  of  the  Greek  comic  poets  nor 
to  rely  solely  upon  them  for  the  facts  of  the  time,  yet  with 
careful  allowances  for  the  purpose  and  the  occasion  of  the 


Greek  Education  117 

writing,  no  better  description  of  the  contrast  between  the  old 
and  the  new  education  is  to  be  found  than  in  the  controversy 
between  the  Just  and  Unjust  Causes  in  The  Clouds  ol 
Aristophanes.  This  argument,  at  least,  typifies  the  position 
of  the  conservative  Greek,  as  he  sees  the  practices  of  his 
boyhood  and  the  moral  ideals  of  his  manhood  going  to  decay. 

In  Method.  —  The  changes  in  method  have  already  been 
suggested.  With  an  increased  emphasis  upon  study  of  form, 
with  the  growing  importance  of  intellectual  acuteness  in  dis- 
crimination between  words,  with  the  enlarged  rewards  for 
mere  showy  effectiveness,  the  old  emphasis  of  training  in 
moral  habit  as  the  basal  part  of  education  is  replaced  by  the 
exaltation  of  instruction  —  the  giving  of  the  theory  —  into 
the  place  of  prominence.  All  education  becomes  more  liter- 
ary and  hence  more  theoretical.  Instruction  in  grammar 
and  rhetoric,  soon  to  be  followed  by  instruction  in  other 
subjects,  reverses  the  old  order  of  method  and  makes  of  their 
education  a  process  of  theoretical  instruction.  Evident,  too, 
is  the  change  in  method  of  gymnastic  training  from  one 
wherein  the  aim  is  to  harden  and  drill  men  for  practical  services 
to  the  state,  to  one  wherein  the  aim  is  a  life  of  mere  aesthetic 
enjoyment.  Education  becomes  more  distinctly  a  school 
process  looking  toward  intellectual  and  practical,  that  is, 
individual,  ends. 

The  Results  of  the  New  Education,  both  in  the  century  of 
transition  and  in  the  following  period  of  complete  dominance, 
were  naturally  of  a  twofold  character.  If  one  looks  solely 
upon  the  darker  side  and  is  guided  by  the  strictures  of  Plato, 
Aristophanes,  and  the  conservatives,  as  are  some  historians, 
such  as  Curtius,  it  is  a  period  of  extravagance  in  customs,  of 
license  in  action  and  of  skepticism,  irreverence,  and  anarchy  in 
belief.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  one  tempers  the  views  of  these 
critics  by  what  is  gained  inferentially  from  their  own  writ- 
ings and  more  directly  from  writers  less  renowned,  as  is  done 
by  Grote  (Chapter  67),  it  is  a  period  of  the  greatest  enlight- 


1 1 8  History  of  Edit  cation 

enment  in  opinions,  of  moderation  in  policy,  and  of  attainment 
in  all  the  higher  aspirations  of  life.  In  fact,  as  character- 
istic of  a  period  of  greatest  freedom,  both  results  may  be  true. 
With  its  attendant  benefits  and  its  unavoidable  evils  the 
absolute  freedom  of  learning  and  of  teaching,  the  "  Lern-  und 
Lehrfreiheit,"  which  is  the  ideal  of  modern  higher  educa- 
tion, was  an  actual  realization  in  this  period.  Such  evils  are 
the  necessary  price  to  be  paid  for  such  blessings.  With 
Athens,  however,  since  such  freedom  attended  not  only 
learning  and  thought,  but  prevailed  in  the  world  of  moral 
conduct,  of  political  activities  and  of  the  religious  life  as  well, 
the  cost  was  a  heavy  one  and  was  paid  to  the  uttermost.  On 
the  one  hand,  it  is  true  that  the  democracy  was  swayed  by 
its  passions ;  that  prejudice  instead  of  justice  controlled  in  the 
law  courts  ;  that  the  sycophants  swarmed  and  worked  their 
unworthy  trade  to  the  demoralization  of  social  life ;  that  vices 
loathsome  to  modern  ideas  prevailed ;  that  scoffing  irrever- 
ence replaced  the  sedate  faith  of  the  earlier  periods ;  that 
youth  exulted  in  a  flippant  independence  and  a  supercilious 
agnosticism;  that  family  morality  decayed;  that  the  pursuit 
of  riches,  with  its  attendant  extravagance,  now  became  char- 
acteristic ;  and  that  in  every  phase  of  life,  as  a  result  of  this 
freedom  given  to  the  individual,  there  was  evident  a  license 
in  conduct  and  an  indifference  to  the  old  moral  ideals  such  as 
to  shock  both  the  conservative  holding  tenaciously  to  the  views 
of  the  older  period  and  the  student  of  the  present  who,  be- 
cause one  unconsciously  feels  the  perspective  of  the  present 
but  can  acquire  only  with  great  labor  that  of  the  past,  is  prone 
to  judge  the  present  by  its  best,  but  the  past  by  its  worst. 
The  better  to  see  the  period  in  its  real  light,  let  us  in  con- 
clusion turn  to  a  brighter  picture  as  painted  by  Wilkins. 

"  But  above  all  things  the  Athenian  of  the  time  of  Pericles 
was  living  in  an  atmosphere  of  unequalled  genius  and  culture. 
He  took  his  way  past  the  temples  where  the  friezes  of  Phidias 
seemed  to  breathe  and  struggle,  under  the  shadow  of  the 


Greek  Education  119 

colonnades  reared  by  the  craft  of  Ictinus  or  Callicrates  and 
glowing  with  the  hues  of  Polygnotus,  to  the  agora  where,  like 
his  Aryan  forefathers  by  the  shores  of  the  Caspian,  or  his 
Teutonic  cousins  in  the  forests  of  Germany,  he  was  to  take 
his  part  as  a  free  man  in  fixing  the  fortunes  of  his  country. 
There  he  would  listen,  with  the  eagerness  of  one  who  knew 
that  all  he  held  most  dear  was  trembling  in  the  balance,  to 
the  pregnant  eloquence  of  Pericles.  Or,  in  later  times,  he 
would  measure  the  sober  prudence  of  Nicias  against  the 
boisterous  turbulence  of  Cleon,  or  the  daring  brilliance  of 
Alcibiades.  Then,  as  the  great  Dionysia  came  round  once 
more  with  the  spring-time,  and  the  sea  was  open  again  for 
traffic,  and  from  every  quarter  of  Hellas  the  strangers  flocked 
for  pleasure  or  business,  he  would  take  his  place  betimes  in 
the  theatre  of  Dionysus,  and  gaze  from  sunrise  to  sunset  on 
the  successive  tragedies  in  which  Sophocles,  and  Euripides, 
and  Ion  of  Chios,  were  contending  for  the  prize  of  poetry. 
Or,  at  the  lesser  festivals,  he  would  listen  to  the  wonderful 
comedies  of  Eupolis,  Aristophanes,  or  the  old  Cratinus,  with 
their  rollicking  fun  and  snatches  of  sweetest  melody,  their 
savage  attacks  on  personal  enemies  and  merry  jeers  at  well- 
known  cowards  or  wantons,  and,  underlying  all,  their  weighty 
allusions  and  earnest  political  purpose.  As  he  passed 
through  the  market-place,  or  looked  in  at  one  of  the  wrestling 
schools,  he  may  have  chanced  to  come  upon  a  group  of  men 
in  eager  conversation,  or  hanging  with  breathless  interest  on 
the  words  of  one  of  their  number ;  and  he  may  have  found 
himself  listening  to  an  harangue  of  Gorgias,  or  to  a  fragment 
of  the  unsparing  dialectic  of  Socrates.  What  could  books  do 
more  for  a  man  who  was  receiving  an  education  such  as  this? 
It  was  what  the  student  gazed  on,  what  he  heard,  what  he 
caught  by  the  magic  of  sympathy,  not  what  he  read,  which 
was  the  education  furnished  by  Athens.  Not  by  her  disci- 
pline,  like  Sparta  and  Rome,  but  by  the  unfailing  charm  of 
her  gracious  influence,  did  Athens  train  her  children." 

This  period  of  transition  was  the  decline  and  the  extinction 
of  Greek  political  activity ;  but  neither  in  this  nor  in  the  ear- 
lier portion  of  the  following  period  —  tha4".  of  the  culmination 
of  the  new  Greek  thought  —  was  there  an  exhaustion  of  intel- 
lectual vigor.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  the  period  of  the  greatest 


1 20  History  of  Education 

intellectual  activity,  with  probably  a  higher  average  of  intellec- 
tual attainment  than  has  ever  been  reached  by  any  people; 
certainly  a  period  unsurpassed  in  its  intellectual  products. 
The  mental  vigor  of  the  entire  people  was  stimulated,  their 
intellectual  horizon  broadened,  and  the  content  of  their 
thought  was  much  enriched.  The  first  evidence  we  meet 
of  this  is  in  the  work  of 

THE  GREEK  EDUCATIONAL  THEORISTS.  —  The  Problem 

of  the  Educational  Theorists  was  identical  with  the  problems 
in  ethics  and  in  philosophy,  the  solution  of  which  was  attempted 
by  the  same  philosophers.  The  old  moral  bonds  being  re- 
jected, the  problem  was  to  discover  or  construct  new  ones; 
the  old  philosophy  being  invalidated,  there  arose  the  obliga- 
tion to  originate  a  new  one ;  the  old  educational  aim  of 
developing  that  worth  of  the  individual  demanded  by  the 
institutional  life  no  longer  being  recognized,  there  existed 
the  necessity  of  formulating  new  conceptions  of  worth  or 
of  virtue,  primarily  providing  for  individuality  but  at  the 
same  time  recognizing  some  moral  bonds  relating  the  in- 
dividual to  his  fellows.  The  occasion  giving  rise  to  the 
educational  theorists  was  the  conflict  between  the  new 
Greek  education  and  the  old.  Their  task  was  to  formulate 
a  new  conception  of  worth  or  virtue  based  primarily  upon  the 
conception  of  individuality  instead  of  upon  that  of  citizenship. 
In  one  respect  the  theorists  agreed  with  the  new  Greek  educa- 
tors, in  that  they  held  the  ideals  as  well  as  the  process  of  the 
old  Greek  education  to  be  wholly  inadequate :  in  one  respect 
they  agreed  with  the  conservatives  who  rejected  the  new,  in 
that  they  held  the  negative  attitude  of  the  sophists  to  be  wholly 
inadequate  and  believed  that  some  general  moral  bonds  must 
be  furnished.  The  attitude  of  the  sophists  toward  knowledge 
was  of  the  same  negative  and  destructive  character  as  that 
toward  moral  principles.  Along  with  the  ancient  standards 
of  conduct,  the  previous  conception  of  knowledge  had  come 


Greek  Education  121 

to  be  looked  upon  as  antiquated  and  false,  so  that  the  sophists 
despaired  of  the  attainment  of  any  satisfactory  interpretation 
of  reality,  of  the  universe,  or  of  life.  Questioning  the  validity 
of  all  general  truth,  the  ablest  among  them  denied  the  very 
possibility  of  knowledge ;  while  the  rank  and  file  of  the  new 
teachers  sought  merely  to  give  interesting  information,  or 
offer  plausible  argument,  or  produce  showy  rhetorical  effect, 
all  for  material  gain  or  utilitarian  purposes  with  no  thought 
of  fundamental  validity  or  ultimate  consequences. 

The  task  of  these  theorists  on  the  moral  side  presents  a 
remarkable  parallel  to  that  attempted  by  a  modern  epoch- 
making  philosopher,  who  likewise  united  in  the  problem  the 
ethical,  philosophical,  and  educational  elements.  From  the 
point  of  view  of  the  modern  positivism  or  evolutionary  phi- 
losophy, the  two  ages  present  a  striking  analogy.  Substituting 
the  idea  of  conception  or  purpose  of  education  for  that  of  the 
scheme  or  system  of  ethical  beliefs,  the  following  passage  from 
the  Introduction  to  Ethics  by  Herbert  Spencer  is  an  exact  state- 
ment of  the  problem  presented  for  solution  to  the  Greek  edu- 
cational theorists :  — 

"  I  am  the  more  anxious  to  indicate  in  outline,  if  I  cannot 
complete,  this  final  work,  because  the  establishment  of  rules 
of  right  conduct  on  a  scientific  basis  is  a  pressing  need.  Now 
that  moral  injunctions  are  losing  the  authority  given  by  their 
supposed  sacred  origin,  the  secularization  of  morals  is  becom- 
ing imperative.  Few  things  can  happen  more  disastrous  than 
the  decay  and  death  of  a  regulative  system  no  longer  fit,  before 
another  and  fitter  regulative  system  has  grown  up  to  replace 
it.  Most  of  those  who  reject  the  current  creed,  appear  to 
assume  that  the  controlling  agency  furnished  by  it  may 
safely  be  thrown  aside,  and  the  vacancy  left  unfilled  by  any 
other  controlling  agency.  Meanwhile,  those  who  defend  the 
current  creed  allege  that  in  the  absence  of  the  guidance  it 
yields,  no  guidance  can  exist:  divine  commandments  they 
think  the  only  possible  guides.  Thus  between  these  extreme 
opponents  there  is  a  certain  community.  The  one  holds  that 
the  gap  left  by  disappearance  of  the  code  of  supernatural 


122  History  of  Education 

ethics,  need  not  be  filled  by  a  code  of  natural  ethics ;  and  the 
other  holds  that  it  cannot  be  so  filled.  Both  contemplate  a 
vacuum,  which  the  one  wishes  and  the  other  fears." 

Thus  in  ages  quite  remote  in  time  the  problems  of  individ- 
ualism present  the  same  questions  in  education  as  well  as 
in  ethics  and  in  morals.  To  the  Greek  philosophers,  as  to  the 
modern  one  cited,  progress  in  thought  had  destroyed  the  va- 
lidity of  the  old  institutional  morality.  Its  place  had  to  be 
filled  by  a  morality  based  upon  knowledge.  Formulated 
from  the  thought  content  of  a  given  age,  such  a  morality 
would  be  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  time.  Thus  the 
divorce  of  the  philosophy  and  the  thought  life  from  the  prac- 
tical life  was  one  cause  of  the  insufficiency  and  the  failure  of 
the  old.  To  make  this  union  and  thus  furnish  a  new  basis 
for  the  intellectual  and  the  moral  life,  now  united  as  never 
before,  was  the  task  first  essayed  by  Socrates. 

Thus  these  philosophers,  or  educational  theorists,  attempted 
the  problem  growing  out  of  the  changes  previously  mentioned 
as  characteristic  of  the  period  and  affecting  every  phase  of 
life.  Their  work  is  characterized  by  Zeller  as  follows  :  — 

"  Scientific  ethics  became  necessary  because  of  the  giving 
way  of  moral  convictions ;  a  wider  inquiry,  because  of  the 
narrowness  of  the  philosophy  of  nature ;  a  critical  method, 
because  of  the  contradiction  of  dogmatic  systems  ;  a  philoso- 
phy of  conceptions,  because  of  the  uncertainty  of  the  obser- 
vations of  the  senses ;  Idealism,  because  of  the  unsatisfactory 
nature  of  a  materialistic  view  of  the  world." 

Socrates,  His  Relation  to  the  Sophists  and  the  Old  Gre^k 
Educators. — While  Socrates  did  but  state  the  problem  and 
vaguely  suggest  the  principle  of  solution,  he  initiated  the  ten- 
dency that  gave  to  humanity  the  highest  formulation  of  the 
principle  of  the  moral  life  that,  until  then,  it  had  been  able  to 
reach.  At  the  time  of  Socrates  there  were  other  tendencies  in 
Athenian  society  besides  the  individualism  of  the  sophists; 


Greek  Education  123 

but  instead  of  looking  toward  the  future  all  was  reactionary. 
Aristophanes  headed  the  conservative  party  that  would  return 
to  the  good  old  times.  Xenophon  in  his  Cyropcedia  described 
the  education  of  the  Persians  in  such  a  way  that  he  held  up  in 
a  thinly  veiled  form,  as  an  ideal  to  which  to  return  as  an 
escape  from  the  existing  anarchy,  the  Spartan  system  of 
education,  modified  by  the  introduction  of  some  aspects  of  the 
old  Greek  aim  as  formulated  by  Athens.  The  Pythagoreans 
suggested  a  scheme  of  socialism,  both  formulated  philosophi- 
cally and  worked  out  practically,  which  was  radically  antago- 
nistic to  the  individualistic  tendencies  in  Athenian  life  and 
hence  extremely  distasteful.  But  Socrates  accepted  as  his 
starting  point  the  basal  principle  of  the  sophist  teaching, 
"  Man  is  the  measure  of  all  things."  This  he  did  in  no  super- 
ficial sense.  If  man  is  the  measure  of  all  things,  the  first 
obligation  which  man  must  assume  is  to  know  himself.  To 
Protagoras,  who  formulated  this  fundamental  tenet  of  the 
sophists,  knowledge  consisted  in  sensations,  —  a  philosophical 
belief  not  foreign  to  modern  times  wherein  it  is  represented 
in  an  elaborated  form  by  a  large  and  influential  school  of 
thought,  one  might  almost  say  the  dominant  thought  of  the 
past  two  centuries;  on  the  contrary,  to  Socrates,  knowledge 
consisted  in  conceptions,  in  ideas  universally  true  for  all 
individuals  instead  of  in  sensations  possessing  no  canons  of 
validity  outside  of  the  individual.  In  accepting  the  command 
of  the  oracle,  "  Know  thyself  "  as  the  guiding  principle  of  his 
life's  work,  Socrates  afforded  to  the  Athenian  public  a  new 
type  by  reason  of  his  tendency  to  introspection  and  his  power 
of  inward  concentration.  So  opposite  is  this  to  the  dominant 
Grecian  interest  concerning  outward  manifestation  of  power 
and  excellence,  in  the  beautiful  in  form  and  in  pleasure  to  be 
gained  from  a  life  of  activity,  that  it  accounts  for  much  of  the 
hostility  of  the  Athenian  public  toward  Socrates. 

Within  the  consciousness  of  the  individual,  within  the  moral 
nature  of  man,  according  to  this  new  teacher,  is  to  be  found 


124  History  of  Education 

the  new  moral  standard,  the  determination  of  the  aims  of  life 
and  of  the  purpose  of  education.  Not,  however,  in  this  con- 
sciousness as  mere  opinion.  A  characteristic  of  this  age  was 
the  dominance  of  opinion.  Questions  relating  to  natural 
phenomena,  natural  forces,  political  policy,  economic  proce- 
dure, moral  principles,  were  all  thrown  into  the  arena  of  public 
discussion.  As  nowadays  questions  relating  to  the  operation 
of  economic  laws,  of  jurisprudence,  of  finance,  are  often 
settled  by  popular  vote ;  as  now  each  individual  by  virtue  of 
his  citizenship  assumes  to  be  able  to  settle  such  questions  in 
his  own  judgment;  so  it  was  then  under  the  influence  of  the 
sophists  with  a  much  wider  list  of  subjects.  "  Come  now, 
whether  do  you  think  that  Jupiter  always  rains  fresh  rain  on 
each  occasion,  or  that  the  sun  draws  from  below  the  same 
water  back  again,"  proposes  Strepsiades  in  The  Clouds  as  a 
fertile  and  typical  subject  for  the  exchange  of  opinion. 
Against  this  sway  of  opinion  Socrates  set  himself  with  all  the 
force  of  his  wonderful  personality.  He  accepted  as  a  divine 
calling  the  mission  of  testing  this  conceit  of  knowledge  in  men 
and  of  endeavoring  to  develop  such  opinion  into  true  knowl- 
edge. It  is  not  the  individual  in  man  but  the  universal  that 
gives  him  his  freedom  and  makes  him  worthy  to  have 
this  great  privilege  of  determining  his  standards  of  conduct 
and  his  aims  in  life.  As  opposed  to  the  purely  individualistic 
basis  of  opinion,  knowledge  possesses  universal  validity. 
From  this  basis  Socrates  arrives  at  his  fundamental  principle, 
"  Knowledge  is  virtue:  "  —by  guiding  conduct  by  those  ideas 
that  possess  universal  validity,  instead  of  by  mere  opinion,  one 
lives  the  virtuous  life.  The  aim  of  education,  then,  was  not  to 
give  the  offhand  information  that,  combined  with  superficial 
brilliancy  of  speech,  constituted  the  ideal  with  the  sophists ; 
but  to  give  knowledge  to  the  individual  by  developing  in  him 
the  power  of  thought.  Possessing  such  power,  one  would  be 
no  longer  satisfied  with  a  mere  passing  opinion  arrived  at  with 
superficial  rapidity,  but  would  argue  back  from  such  initial 


Greek  Education  125 

opinion  to  the  discovery  of  the  ultimate  basis  in  that  which  is 
true  for  all,  and  thus  arrive  at  knowledge.  Every  individual 
has  within  himself  the  power  or  the  possibilities  of  acquiring 
this  power,  —  of  knowing  and  appreciating  such  truths  as 
those  of  fidelity,  of  honesty,  of  truthfulness,  of  honor,  of 
friendship,  of  wisdom,  of  virtue.  This  is  the  phase  of 
knowledge  in  which  Socrates  was  interested,  —  the  knowledge 
that  is  derived  from  one's  own  experience  and  that  relates  to 
and  is  the  basis  of  right  conduct.  While  such  knowledge 
is  the  basis  of  "  the  art  of  living,"  that  highest  of  all  arts  in 
which  Socrates  was  so  interested,  the  insufficiency  of  his 
teaching,  at  this  point,  was  the  chief  reason  for  its  failure 
to  effect  the  practical  reforms  so  needed  in  Athenian  life  at 
that  time.  Knowledge  of  right  is  necessary,  but  it  does  not 
in  itself  provide  for  right  feeling  that  leads  to  the  application 
of  the  knowledge  in  right  doing. 

The  Socratic  Method.  —  The  method  of  teaching  adopted 
by  Socrates  was  the  conversational  one.  As  represented  in 
Plato's  Dialogues  his  teaching  has  two  purposes.  The  first 
of  these  is  to  demonstrate  that  knowledge  lies  at  the  basis  of 
all  virtuous  action.  Throughout  such  dialogues  of  Socrates 
as  are  preserved  for  us  by  his  disciple,  Plato,  it  is  his  custom 
to  draw  his  illustrations  from  the  humblest  and  most  common 
activities  and  operations  of  daily  life.  The  cobbler,  the 
fisherman,  the  mule  driver,  the  cook,  the  housewife,  the 
soldier,  the  slave,  furnish  him  with  his  illustrations  and  with 
the  most  fundamental  truths  he  teaches. 

In  the  case  of  all  craftsmen  and  all  practical  work  of  this 
kind,  knowledge  is  the  basis  of  right  action.  The  muleteer 
is  permitted  to  drive  and  beat  the  mules,  while  the  free  boy 
is  forbidden,  not  because  the  one  is  a  slave  and  the  other 
free,  but  because  the  one  has  the  knowledge  and  the  other 
lacks  it.  The  charioteer  may  drive  in  the  race  and  the  free 
boy  who  owns  the  chariot  and  team  must  remain  a  spectator, 
not  because  the  one  is  of  age  and  the  other  immature,  but 


126  History  of  Education 

because  the  one  has  the  knowledge  that  the  other  lacks ;  the 
free  boy  is  even  under  the  control  of  his  pedagogue,  his  own 
slave,  thus  reversing  what  would  seem  to  be  the  conditions 
of  freedom,  because  the  one  has  the  knowledge  of  right 
conduct  while  the  other  has  this  yet  to  learn.  Knowledge  is 
the  prerequisite  of  free  action,  the  basis  of  all  right  action  in 
all  the  arts.  This  is  true  also  in  the  highest  art  of  all,  the 
art  of  right  living.  Here  as  elsewhere  Socrates  holds  that 
such  knowledge  is  to  be  gained  not  from  the  mere  opinion 
of  the  individual  but  only  by  a  search  for  what  is  common 
to  all,  what  is  of  universal  validity. 

Nature  of  Dialectic.  —  But  without  training  the  individual 
is  unable  to  discover  that  which  possesses  universal  validity 
in  his  own  experience  and  in  his  own  consciousness.  Such 
truth  is  to  be  gained  only  through  the  process  of  dialectic. 
Consequently  the  aim  of  his  work  and  the  general  aim  of 
education  was  to  develop  in  each  individual  the  power 
of  formulating  these  universals,  of  developing  the  power  of 
thought.  Socrates  termed  his  work,  maieutics,  —  the  art  of  giv- 
ing birth  to  ideas.  His  custom  was  to  begin  a  conversation  by 
asking  for  information,  thus  getting  the  views  of  his  com- 
panion, which  he  seemed  to  accept  and  espouse.  Then 
through  adroit  questioning,  these  original  opinions  were 
developed  in  the  words  of  the  person  to  be  instructed,  until 
the  folly  and  absurdities  of  the  superficially  formed  opinions 
were  fully  shown  and  the  supposed  possessor  of  wisdom  was 
brought  face  to  face  with  consequences  that  were  either 
contradictory  to  the  original  opinion  or  so  absurd  that  the 
opponent  lost  all  confidence,  or  becoming  involved  in  the 
mazes  of  the  argument  confessed  the  error  of  his  opinion  or 
his  inability  to  reach  a  satisfactory  conclusion.  By  further 
questioning,  the  whole  truth  of  which  the  original  opinion 
was  but  a  fragment  was  then  developed.  This  is  the  method 
fully  revealed  in  the  Socratic  dialogues  of  Plato. 

Philosophically,    dialectic   is   the  process   of   forming  no 


Greek  Education  127 

tions  from  conceptions.  Differing  from  that  of  the  earlier 
which  dealt  directly  with  objects,  the  philosophy  of  this  later 
Greek  period  is  interested  in  things  only  through  the  medium 
of  the  mind,  —  only  through  their  conceptional  existence  or 
representation.  Hence  the  method  employed  is  that  of  dis- 
tinguishing between  the  qualities  of  things,  between  appear- 
ances and  reality,  between  permanent  form  and  changing 
appearance.  Such  a  method  is  that  of  forming  whole- 
thoughts,  conceptions,  —  in  other  words  the  dialectic  process. 
Educationally,  dialectic,  or  this  conversational  method  sys- 
tematized and  rationalized,  is  the  method  by  which  knowl- 
edge, truth,  or  the  universal  is  reached.  Externally  this 
method,  as  illustrated  in  the  Dialogues  seems  little  more 
than  dialogue  ;  but  it  is  a  conversation  shaped  toward  pecul- 
iar ends,  so  that  it  becomes  a  discourse  inductively  arranged 
to  culminate  in  the  formation  of  a  general  truth  relating  to 
conduct  or  life.  Psychologically,  it  is  the  process  of  the 
formation  of  concepts  from  percepts.  Logically  it  is  the 
resolution  of  species  into  genus  or  the  reverse.  Scientifically 
it  is  the  process  of  inducing  general  principles  from  a 
multiplicity  of  phenomena.  With  Plato  it  becomes  a  type  of 
life,  —  one  given  to  reflection.  He  defines  dialectic  as  "  a 
continuous  discourse  with  one's  self."  Thus  it  is  the  reflec- 
tion on  experience  by  which  one  distributes  the  particulars 
of  experience,  the  acts  and  phenomena  of  everyday  life, 
under  general  principles  and  thus  guides  one's  life  by 
moral  law.  With  dialectic  the  power  of  finding  the  per- 
manent in  passing  experience,  possessed  with  peculiar 
force  by  the  Greeks,  becomes  a  conscious  one.  That 
which  in  the  earlier  periods  unconsciously  made  for  their 
development  now  becomes  the  conscious  purpose  of  their 
education. 

Influence  on  Method  and  Content  of  Education.  —  The  im- 
mediate influence  of  Socrates'  teaching  on  education  was 
twofold.  In  regard  to  content  there  was  an  unprecedented 


128  History  of  Education 

emphasis  on  knowledge.  This  coincided  with  the  similai 
influence  of  the  sophists,  who  gave  to  the  Greeks  the  knowl 
edge  demanded  by  the  new  condition  of  the  times.  With 
Socrates,  as  with  the  sophists,  this  was  knowledge  in  the 
practical  sense,  —  that  which  related  immediately  to  life,  but 
with  this  radical  difference :  the  sophists  gave  the  informa- 
tion requisite  for  the  practical  success  of  the  individual  irre- 
spective of  the  moral  claims  which  institutional  life  had  upon 
him ;  Socrates  aimed  to  develop  knowledge  concerning  con- 
duct, knowledge  of  practical  value  in  life,  but  possessing  uni- 
versal validity  and  consequently  moral  worth.  Since  the 
knowledge  of  Socrates  contained  this  compulsory  moral 
import,  it  was  a  much  broader  conception  than  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  earlier  philosophers,  than  the  information  of 
the  sophists,  and  even  than  the  modern  conception  of  knowl- 
edge. Nevertheless,  to  the  multitude,  this  distinction  was 
hardly  evident,  and  for  them  the  influence  of  the  philoso- 
phers coincided,  in  this  respect,  with  that  of  the  sophists. 

To  both  Socrates  and  Plato  little  mental  improvement 
came  from  the  direct  impartation  of  knowledge.  Against 
the  popular  methods  of  the  sophists,  which  aimed  to  dis- 
seminate information  through  the  formal  lecture,  these  phi- 
losophers opposed  the  dialectic  or  conversational  method,  the 
object  of  which  was  to  generate  the  power  of  thinking. 
Their  aim  was  to  create  minds  capable  of  forming  correct 
conclusions,  of  formulating  the  truth  for  themselves,  rather 
than  to  give  them  the  conclusions  already  elaborated.  Hence 
the  method  of  dialectic  came  to  replace  both  the  method  of 
formal  delivery  of  the  sophists  and  the  method  of  training  in 
habits  through  doing  characteristic  of  the  old  Greek  education. 

As  previously  indicated,  this  method  is  adequate  when  it  is 
applied  to  the  formulation  of  ethical  truths :  it  enables  one  to 
determine  what  is  the  just  act,  what  is  right  conduct,  what 
is  honorable,  etc.,  since  in  all  of  these  respects  every  indi- 
vidual has  had  concrete  experience.  The  limitations  of  the 


Greek  Education  129 

method  appear  when  applied  to  subjects  wherein  the  con- 
tent is  not  given  by  the  experience  of  the  individual.  The 
dialectic  method  can  give  scientific  form,  classification, 
arrangement,  interpretation,  but  it  cannot  of  itself  give  con- 
tent. Concerning  mathematics,  science,  history,  language, 
literature,  it  is  inadequate,  since  the  content  is  racial,  and 
does  not  lie  within  the  scope  of  the  experience  of  the  indi- 
vidual. In  the  educational  process  the  content  subjects  are 
to  be  acquired  by  methods  other  than  the  dialectic.  The 
limitation  that  the  mere  summing  up  of  any  number  of 
instances  always  leaves  the  possibility  of  error  in  the  general 
conclusion,  unless  the  test  of  the  negative  instance  is  applied, 
exists  in  the  very  nature  of  the  inductive  process.  In  such 
cases,  when  the  attempt  is  made  in  these  subjects  mentioned 
to  formulate  conclusions  based  upon  one's  own  experience 
alone,  this  limitation  becomes  a  positive  defect ;  the  methods 
may  be  uncertain,  indefinite,  and  inexact.  As  the  opposite 
of  the  dogmatism  of  the  formal  methods  of  the  sophists, 
which  gave  to  the  individual  the  immediate  satisfaction  but 
not  the  ultimate  truth,  dialectic  was  a  protest.  The  indefinite 
ending  of  most  of  the  Socratic  dialogues  is  but  another  evi- 
dence of  the  inadequacy  of  this  method  alone,  as  is  also  Plato's 
comparison  of  the  method  to  the  climbing  of  a  mountain,  where 
one  successively  reaches  the  summits  of  numerous  foothills 
and  peaks  only  to  find  other  heights  beyond  him.  The  truth 
is  that  Socrates  and  Plato  were  interested  in  the  process  as 
a  process,  and  in  the  power  developed  by  its  use.  By  their 
immediate  followers  the  method,  or  at  least  the  mastery  of  it, 
became  a  dominant  aim  in  education,  with  the  result  that  they 
became  a  people  given  over  to  endless  discussions  relating  to 
refinement  in  the  definition  of  words  and  subtleties  in  the  dis- 
tinction of  thought,  rather  than  to  the  truth  and  validity  of 
the  thought  content.  They  became  in  reality  a  nation  of 
talkers,  not  of  doers  of  deeds.  At  the  same  time,  the  acute- 
ness,  agility,  suppleness,  and  versatility  which  we  think  of  as 


1 30  History  of  Education 

peculiar  to  the  Greek  mind  to  a  degree  never  equaled  by  anj 
other  people  is  also  a  result  of  this  period.  When  this 
method  was  given  permanent  form  in  the  science  of  logic 
first  formulated  by  Aristotle,  it  became  the  basis  of  an  en 
tirely  new  conception  of  education,  to  be  noted  later,  namely, 
education  as  a  discipline. 

Plato  (420-348  B.C.).  —  Importance  as  an  Educational 
Theorist.  —  Granting  at  the  outset  that  the  relation  of  Plato 
to  the  education  of  his  times  was  purely  theoretical,  and  that 
the  concrete  details  of  his  scheme  are  impracticable  for  that 
or  for  any  time,  we  are  here  interested  in  seeing:  first, 
that  with  Plato  we  find  the  most  elaborate  and  suggestive 
attempt  to  solve  the  educational  problem  presented  to  the 
Greek  thinkers  of  the  times,  —  the  problem  of  the  conflict 
between  the  welfare  of  the  individual  and  that  of  society ; 
second,  that  the  ideal  of  life  and  of  education  as  formulated 
by  Plato  was  a  most  noble  one,  one  most  suggestive  for  all 
ages,  and  one  from  which  reformers  as  well  as  most  humble 
laborers  in  t'  e  cause  of  human  advancement  then  as  now 
have  drawn  inspiration ;  third,  that  in  the  detail  of  his 
scheme,  how  ver  chimerical  and  even  reactionary  it  may  have 
been,  we  fine1  pertinent  criticism  of  the  ideals  and  the  practices 
of  his  times  ;.nd  of  education  of  the  old  Greek  period  as  well ; 
and  fourth,  that  in  his  criticism  of  literature  and  gymnastics 
and  in  his  general  formulation  of  the  course  of  training  of 
the  rulers  in  his  Utopian  scheme  of  society,  he  gave  a  sugges- 
tion concerning  the  content  of  education  that  has  been  of  far- 
reaching  historical  influence  and  that  possesses  permanent 
value. 

Similarity  of  Plato's  Views  to  those  of  Socrates.  —  Con- 
cerning the  Aim  of  Education  :  Agreeing  with  Socrates  that 
the  great  need  of  the  times  was  the  formulation  of  a  new 
moral  bond  in  life  to  replace  the  ancient  wealth  and  worth  of 
old  Greek  society  rejected  by  the  individualism  of  the  new, 
Plato,  like  Socrates,  attempted  to  formulate  a  new  basis  for 


Greek  Education 

the  moral  life  which  should  give  sufficient  scope  tor  the 
individual  while  at  the  same  time  providing  an  ample  basis 
for  institutional  life.  Plato  agreed  with  his  master  that  this 
new  bond  was  to  be  found  in  ideas,  in  universal  truth,  in  the 
intelligence  through  which  men  were  united  by  nature. 
Virtue  consists,  then,  in  knowledge,  in  whole-thoughts  as 
opposed  to  opinions.  Socrates  was  content  with  this  mere 
formulation  of  the  purpose  of  education  and  of  life  and  with 
the  formation  of  the  power  of  attaining  to  this  knowledge 
on  the  part  of  the  few  whom  he  taught.  But  Plato,  pro- 
foundly interested  in  the  nature  of  these  whole-thoughts, 
carried  his  investigation  much  further. 

This  work  of  determining  the  nature  of  knowledge,  his 
metaphysics,  is  a  most  important  part  of  Plato's  philosophy, 
but  one  that  can  be  referred  to  here  only  to  the  extent  that 
it  touches  his  general  scheme  of  education.  Knowledge, 
or  whole-thoughts,  consists  in  ideas  as  opposed  to  objects ;  in 
universals  as  opposed  to  concrete  perception ;  in  the  ideas 
represented  to  us  by  common  or  class  nouns.  The  form, 
then,  is  the  permanent  thing  which  gives  rise  to  all  the 
multiple,  material  reproductions  of  it ;  the  idea  is  the  imper- 
ishable essence  which  gives  reality  to  the  substantial  form  in 
which  it  exists.  The  idea  is  the  only  true  reality.  Such 
objects  as  a  table,  chair,  or  desk  are  not  the  highest  form  of 
reality  ;  in  the  Platonic  sense  they  are  not  realities  at  all,  but 
merely  ephemeral  reproductions,  which  emanate,  as  it  were, 
from  the  original  life-giving,  or  existence-giving  reality  or 
form.  There  always  must  exist  a  harmony  between  the 
phenomenal  object  and  the  idea  from  which  it  emanated. 
The  more  nearly  perfect  this  harmony,  the  more  nearly  the 
object  performs  the  function  for  which  it  was  created  by  this 
approximation  to  the  idea  which  determines  its  ideal  function 
the  more  nearly  it  approximates  the  idea  of  good.  There  is 
a  good  for  every  phenomenal  existence.  The  function  of  the 
eye  is  to  see, — to  the  extent  that  it  possesses  this  power  it  is 


132  History  of  Education 

the  good  eye.  So  it  is  with  the  entire  realm  of  realities, 
these  are  arranged  in  a  series  of  goods  until  the  highest 
good,  the  Divine  Principle,  is  approximated.  It  is  from  this 
highest  good  that  the  lesser  goods  have  emanated,  and  by 
this  that  their  proper  function  and  their  proper  forms  have 
been  determined.  The  good  of  each  phenomenal  existence, 
including  man,  is  to  attain  to  its  appropriate  function,  that 
is,  to  enter  into  harmony  with  its  corresponding  or  originating 
idea.  So  much  for  a  brief  statement  of  the  Platonic  meta- 
physics and  ethics. 

It  is  in  this  sense  that  knowledge  is  virtue :  for  knowledge 
is  the  recognition  of  the  harmony  between  phenomenon  and 
the  form  or  the  idea ;  it  is  the  recognition  of  the  true  func- 
tion of  all  particular  types  of  existence  and  of  the  approxima- 
tion to  it  of  its  phenomenal  reproductions ;  it  is,  in  other 
words,  but  the  recognition  of  the  good.  To  attain  to  this 
virtue,  this  knowledge  of  the  good,  is  the  aim  of  the  individual 
life ;  to  develop  this  knowledge,  this  appreciation  of  the  good, 
is  the  aim  of  education. 

Concerning  the  Method  of  Education :  As  in  the  case  of 
the  aim,  so  also  in  regard  to  educational  method,  Plato  accepts 
the  Socratic  solution,  but  elaborates  it.  Whole-thoughts 
are  to  be  reached  by  the  process  of  dialectic,  for  dialectic 
is  at  bottom  but  the  activity  of  the  mind  in  forming  concep- 
tions through  the  discrimination  of  qualities  and  attributes. 
It  is  in  this  sense  that  Plato  defines  dialectic  as  a  "  continuous 
discourse  with  one's  self."  While  Socrates  found  this  power 
in  all  and  conversed  with  Pericles  or  the  street  cobbler  alike, 
Plato  considered  that  this  longing  for  the  supreme  good,  this 
power  of  attaining  knowledge  was  to  be  found  only  in  a  few ; 
for  to  him  this  vision  of  eternal  truth  was  a  function  of  a 
special  or  sixth  sense,  a  "sense  for  ideas."  Hence,  whereas 
the  influence  of  Socrates  fell  in  with  the  democratic  tendency 
of  the  times,  the  influence  of  Plato  was  more  reactionary;  and 
in  his  ideal  schemes  of  education  he  returned  to  an  aristo- 


Greek  Education  133 

cratic  form  of  government,  of  a  socialistic  nature,  wherein 
individualism,  except  as  it  found  expression  in  this  highest 
class,  was  suppressed. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  this  suppression  of 
the  individual  in  this  idealistic  scheme  is  more  apparent  than 
real ;  for  his  rigid  classification  of  individuals  or  social  units 
is  largely  a  self-determined  one,  and  any  particular  individual 
is  fitted  into  the  scheme  by  the  determination  of  his  particular 
powers.  Such  classification,  not  based  upon  birth  or  wealth, 
but  upon  the  inherent  ability  of  the  individual  to  appreciate 
higher  forms  of  truth  and  to  perform  social  activities  as  this 
native  ability  is  developed  by  an  ideal  system  of  education, 
in  reality  offers  to  the  individual  the  opportunity  for  fullest 
possible  development  of  personality,  if  it  be  granted  that  a 
philosophical  class  capable  of  directing  society  has  been 
placed  in  control. 

Dialectic  then  becomes  a  type  of  higher  education  almost 
identical  with  what  would  now  be  termed  the  study  of 
philosophy ;  for,  during  a  period  of  five  years,  those  capable 
of  profiting  by  this  higher  education  were  to  devote  them- 
selves wholly  to  the  contemplation  of  the  good,  to  the  study 
of  ideas.  As  a  term,  dialectic  becomes  synonymous  with  the 
higher  intellectual  life,  and  its  followers  are  recognized  as 
a  distinct  order  of  beings  separated  off  from  the  masses  of 
citizens.  In  this  intellectual  class  distinction  is  found  the 
basis  of  some  of  the  most  characteristic  features  of  education 
for  many  centuries  following. 

The  Advance  beyond  Socrates  made  by  Plato  in  his  educa- 
tional thought  is  most  apparent  when  he  attempts  to  indicate 
how  knowledge,  in  this  truest  sense,  can  be  made  the  basis  of 
moral  life ;  how  it  can  be  applied  to  the  moral  re-organization 
of  society ;  how  whole-thoughts  can  be  applied  to  human 
life.  His  answer  is  simple  and  direct:  this  is  to  be  accom- 
plished by  having  those  who  alone  possess  this  knowledge, 
the  philosophers,  become  the  rulers  in  society.  The  philoso- 


134  History  of  Education 

pher  is  he  who  knows  the  highest  good.  He  alone  can  deter- 
mine to  what  extent  the  phenomenal  existence  approximates 
the  idea  and  thus  attains  to  the  good ;  he  alone,  then,  can 
determine  that  disposition  of  men  and  things  which  shall 
result  in  the  moral  advancement  and  ultimate  perfection  of 
the  race.  Society  must  be  so  re-organized  that  this  lover  of 
wisdom  shall  control  and  direct  its  activities  and  relationship  ; 
education  should  aim  to  develop  this  power  in  every  indi- 
vidual within  whom  the  capacity  exists,  and  through  the 
guidance  of  the  philosophers  should  prepare  and  direct  each 
individual  for  the  performance  of  those  duties  which  by 
nature  he  is  most  fitted  to  perform.  The  Republic,  or  The 
Dialogue  on  Justice,  gives  the  concrete  answer  to  these 
demands. 

The  Educational  Scheme  of  The  Republic.  —  In  answer  to 
the  question  how  absolute  justice  as  the  basis  of  social  life 
can  be  obtained,  how  philosophers  can  be  given  the  control 
of  society,  how  knowledge  can  be  made  the  basis  of  a  new 
social  structure,  Plato  elaborates  an  order  of  society,  with 
a  system  of  education  to  support  it,  that  is  based  upon  a 
psychological  analysis  of  the  individual.  He  finds  in  the  in- 
dividual these  faculties:  the  intellect,  whose  virtue  is  prudence; 
the  passions,  whose  virtue  is  fortitude ;  the  desires  or  appe- 
tites, whose  virtue  is  temperance.  Therefore,  when  in  the 
life  of  the  individual  the  intellect  restrains  the  passions,  rules 
absolutely  the  desires,  and  thus  controls  action ;  when  the 
passions  serve  as  an  ally  of  the  intellect,  as  a  dog  assists  and 
obeys  a  shepherd ;  when  the  desires  render  absolute  obedience, 
—  then  the  virtues  appropriate  to  each  are  attained  and 
justice  is  maintained  in  the  life  of  the  individual.  Thus  it 
would  be  also  in  society  if  the  classes  corresponding  to  these 
faculties  should  perform  their  appropriate  functions.  "  Society 
is  the  individual  writ  large."  Upon  this  figure  of  speech, 
which  has  led  many  a  subsequent  thinker  astray,  Plato  bases 
his  theory.  Corresponding  to  the  faculties  of  the  individual 


Greek  Education  135 

there  are  in  society  according  to  him  three  classes :  the 
philosophical  class,  devoted  to  the  pursuit  of  knowledge, 
whose  virtue  is  wisdom ;  the  soldier  class,  devoted  to  warfare, 
whose  virtue  is  honor;  the  industrial  class,  devoted  to  trade 
and  crafts,  whose  virtue  is  money-making.  If  the  philosophi- 
cal class  should  rule  ;  if  the  soldier  class  protect  and  defend 
according  to  the  direction  of  the  first;  if  the  artisan  class 
should  obey  and  support  the  other  two,  —  then  social  justice 
would  be  attained. 

Membership  in  these  classes  is  to  be  determined,  however, 
by  no  caste  rule.  Through  a  system  of  education  which  dis- 
covers and  develops  the  qualifications  of  the  individual  for 
membership  in  any  particular  class,  virtue  in  the  individual 
and  justice  in  society  is  to  be  obtained.  To  education  is 
thus  consciously  ascribed  a  much  broader  function  than 
ever  before;  for  it  now  is  to  provide  for  the  fullest  devel- 
opment of  personality  in  the  individual  and  for  the  main- 
tenance of  a  perfect  form  of  society.  Through  education  the 
conflict  between  the  old  and  new  Greek  life  is  to  be  solved. 

Education  of  Children  and  Youth. —  In  his  outline  of  educa- 
tion for  children  and  youth  Plato  held  very  closely  to  the 
existing  scheme.  The  early  Greeks,  he  held,  had  builded 
better  than  they  knew.  Plato's  philosophical  exposition  was 
to  make  patent  that  which  they  had  unconsciously  elaborated. 
Early  education  was  to  begin  at  seven  and  extend  until  the 
sixteenth  or  seventeenth  year  in  the  study  of  gymnastics  and 
music ;  the  one  to  produce  harmony  of  the  body,  the  other 
for  the  harmony  of  the  soul.  The  years  from  seventeen  to 
twenty  were  to  be  devoted  to  the  military  gymnastic  training 
of  the  ephebes.  In  the  earlier  period  other  subjects,  reading, 
writing,  arithmetic,  geometry,  etc.,  were  to  be  introduced  ; 
not  so  much  in  the  sense  of  regularly  organized  disciplines, 
as  in  that  of  mere  occasional  activities  to  be  determined  by 
the  interests  of  the  child.  During  this  period  he  was  not  to 
be  forced  in  his  studies ;  for  though  compulsory  gymnastic 


1 36  History  of  Education 

training  might  be  of  value,  compulsory  intellectual  train 
ing  could  not  be.  This  same  training  in  the  earlier  period 
would  readily  determine  who,  from  their  very  nature,  could 
not  profitably  continue  to  devote  their  time  to  education. 
Such  should  be  drafted  off  immediately  by  the  ruling  class 
into  the  ranks  of  the  industrial  class.  Similarly  the  mili- 
tary training  from  seventeen  to  twenty  would  indicate  those 
possessed  of  spirit  and  courage  but  who  lacked  the  ability 
to  profit  by  any  higher  intellectual  training.  Such  were  to 
be  drafted  into  the  military  class,  where  they  were  to  find 
their  life  work. 

One  of  the  most  striking  features  of  this  organization  of 
early  education  is  Plato's  discussion  of  the  use  of  literature 
and  music.  While  he  sanctions  the  proper  use  of  nursery 
myths  and  of  poetry  in  the  didascaleum,  he  condemns  the 
Homeric  poems  and  most  of  the  early  poetry  of  the  Greeks 
as  having  an  immoral  influence  and  teaching  erroneous  ideas 
concerning  the  gods.  Music  is  to  be  used  strictly  in  the  old 
Greek  sense  for  the  training  in  reverence  and  a  rigid  system 
of  morals,  and  to  this  end  both  music  and  literature  are  to  be 
closely  supervised  and  censored  by  state  officials.  Dramatic 
poetry  as  mere  fiction,  and  hence  false,  is  to  be  banished 
altogether. 

Higher  education,  for  which  all  the  previous  training  has 
been  but  preliminary,  is  now  to  be  organized  for  those  capable 
of  undertaking  the  intellectual  discipline.  This  conception  of 
the  higher  intellectual  life,  with  its  appropriate  preparation, 
altogether  beyond  the  ordinary  and  traditional  demands  of 
life,  is  the  great  contribution  of  Plato  to  the  education  of 
his  times.  From  twenty  to  thirty  those  who  show  evidences 
of  a  higher  intellectual  capacity  are  to  devote  themselves  to 
the  study  of  the  sciences,  —  arithmetic,  geometry,  music,  and 
astronomy,  —  now  in  no  fragmentary  and  unorganized  form, 
as  in  the  early  stage  of  education,  but  definitely  systematized 
in  a  most  serious  study  of  the  realities  of  life.  Music,  arith- 


Greek  Education  137 

metic,  etc.,  are  not  music  and  arithmetic  as  we  understand 
them  so  much  as  a  study  of  the  scientific  form  underlying 
these  arts.  It  is  in  music  as  the  science  of  the  harmony 
of  sound,  in  geometry  as  the  science  of  the  relation  of  forms, 
not  as  a  practical  art  to  be  used  in  war  and  commerce,  that 
Plato  is  interested.  Hence,  he  states,  "  In  astronomy,  as  in 
geometry,  we  should  use  problems,  and  let  the  heavens  alone, 
if  we  desire  to  have  a  real  knowledge  of  the  science  and  to 
train  the  reasoning  faculty  by  the  aid  of  it."  Such  study 
will  develop  the  intellect  of  those  capable  of  ruling ;  but 
since  these  sciences  to  a  considerable  extent  deal  with  opin- 
ion, there  remains  yet  the  study  of  pure  being,  of  ideas  as 
separable  from  and  distinct  from  their  material  embodi- 
ment. This  study  furnishes  the  true  subject  of  investigation 
for  the  philosopher.  Many  who  are  competent  to  master  the 
sciences,  have  not  the  intellectual  power  to  proceed  to  the 
study  of  true  being ;  hence  at  thirty  there  is  another  selection 
to  be  made. 

Those  not  chosen  for  this  advanced  study  are  drafted  into 
the  minor  offices  in  society,  while  those  of  superior  mind 
devote  five  further  years  to  the  study  of  dialectic,  as  the 
study  of  ideas  is  called.  Through  such  training  and  such 
contemplation  of  ideas  they  come  into  the  possession  of  the 
highest  knowledge,  of  truth  itself.  The  possession  of  this 
truth  constitutes  virtue.  At  thirty-five  these  philosophers, 
or  possessors  of  truth,  are  to  return  into  social  life  as  guar- 
dians of  the  interests  of  society  and  as  directors  of  its  for- 
tunes. For  fifteen  years  these  philosophers,  trained  at  the 
expense  of  society,  are  to  devote  themselves  to  the  promotion 
of  the  social  welfare ;  at  fifty  they  are  to  be  allowed  to  retire 
in  order  to  devote  themselves  to  that  life  of  study  and  of  con- 
templation which  is  the  life  of  supreme  good. 

The  Educational  Scheme  of  The  Laws.  —  The  Laws  of  Plato 
is  the  product  of  his  extreme  old  age,  as  The  Republic  is  of 
the  prime  of  his  manhood.  The  continued  decline  in  patriot- 


138  History  of  Education 

ism  and  public  morality  at  Athens,  the  failure  of  his  attempt 
as  a  philosopher  to  assist  in  the  government  of  Syracuse,  and 
the  natural  conservatism  of  old  age  explain  the  reactionary 
character  of  The  Laws.  The  Republic  is  a  radical  venture 
into  socialism  as  a  remedy  for  individualism  ;  as  a  remedy  for 
the  same  evil  The  Laws  propose  a  return  to  a  conservatism, 
almost  a  despotism,  modeled  on  old  Greek  lines.  The  Republic 
banished  the  poets,  on  account  of  their  immoral  influence; 
The  Laws  banish  or  at  least  ignore  the  philosophers.  That 
phase  of  education  in  the  earlier  work  devoted  to  dialectic 
is  in  The  Laws  entirely  omitted.  Education  culminates  in 
a  mathematical  or  astrological  study  that  is  closely  allied 
to  religion.  Plato  praises  the  religion  and  the  moral  con- 
ditions in  early  society,  quite  after  the  manner  of  Aris- 
tophanes ;  but  finding  it  impossible  to  return  to  the  gross 
polytheism  of  the  period,  he  substitutes  an  astrological  reli- 
gion, the  priests  of  which  together  with  an  hereditary  prince 
become  the  rulers  in  society.  The  outlines  of  education,  with 
the  omission  of  the  highest  stage,  is  quite  similar  to  that  of 
The  Republic,  though  animated  by  a  different  spirit.  The 
literary  element,  now  small,  is  strictly  guarded  by  the  state, 
on  the  assumption  that  the  decline  in  Athenian  life  has  been 
due  to  a  corruption  in  music  and  in  literature.  While  the 
details  of  the  scheme  of  education  are  even  closer  jo  facts 
than  those  in  The  Republic,  they  represent  a  combination 
of  selected  Spartan  and  Athenian  elements  rather  than  an 
imitation  of  either.  The  common  meals,  the  education  of 
both  sexes,  the  public  character  of  the  schooling,  the  close 
supervision  of  private  life,  are  Spartan  ;  the  literary  elements, 
the  philosophy  underlying  the  curriculum,  the  festive  charac- 
ter of  the  training,  the  extensive  training  in  the  choruses,  and 
other  features  of  like  sort  are  Athenian.  While  in  perma- 
nent value  of  the  ideas  elaborated  The  Laws  cannot  compare 
with  The  Republic,  its  historic  elements  are  of  somewhat 
greater  importance. 


Greek  Education  139 

The  Permanent  Value  of  Plato's  educational  theories  is  to 
be  found  in  the  principles  formulated.  From  his  theory  of 
ideas  and  his  theory  of  the  good,  as  the  approximation  of  the 
phenomenal  existence  to  the  reality  of  the  idea,  Plato  develops 
in  The  Republic  the  fundamental  ethical  principle  that  each 
individual  should  devote  his  life  to  doing  that  which  by  nature 
he  is  most  fitted  to  do,  —  that  is,  to  accomplishing  his  own  par- 
ticular good  in  life  ;  for  thus  he  will  attain  to  that  which  is  the 
highest  for  himself  and  accomplish  the  most  for  society. 
There  follows  from  this  the  fundamental  pedagogical  prin- 
ciple that  it  is  the  function  of  education,  as  controlled  by  the 
philosophers,  to  determine  what  is  the  particular  good,  the 
worth,  of  each  individual,  —  what  each  individual  is  most  fitted 
by  nature  to  do,  —  and  then  to  prepare  him  for  this  service. 
While  it  must  be  admitted  that  this  solution  is  but  a  formal 
one,  yet  any  practical  solution  is  determined  largely  by  a  pre- 
vious formal  solution.  The  value  of  a  formal  solution  which 
will  give  an  ideal  to  work  toward  is  clearly  indicated  by  the 
chaotic  condition  of  our  educational  practice  of  to-day,  which 
possesses  neither  formal  ideal  nor  unified  practice. 

The  Republic  was  Plato's  answer  to  the  problem  of  the  new 
Greek  education.  A  state  is  constructed  wherein  one  may 
find  the  embodiment  of  his  own  reason ;  through  which  one 
may  work  out  the  highest  good  as  determined  by  his  own 
nature ;  and  in  which  therefore  one  may  secure  the  widest 
freedom  for  the  expression  of  his  own  individuality.  Since 
the  fullest  possible  scope  was  given  for  development,  such 
limitations  as  there  are  exist  by  reason  of  the  limitations 
natural  to  the  personality  of  each. 

While  the  scheme  is  Utopian,  the  idea  is  not.  An  educa- 
tion such  as  this,  that  will  give  to  each  the  highest  attainable 
and  in  this  highest  attainable  will  of  necessity  give  him  the 
widest  liberty,  provides  for  the  development  of  free  men, 
each  in  his  particular  sphere  in  life.  With  each  bound  down 
by  no  utility  save  the  use  of  his  own  powers  in  the  fullest  ex- 


140  History  of  Education 

pression  of  his  own  personality,  and  consequently  for  the  high- 
est service  of  his  fellow-man,  we  find  here  the  first  conscious 
explanation  of  the  Greek  educational  ideal  and  the  first  exposi 
tion  of  the  idea  of  a  liberal  education.  However  the  content 
of  such  an  education  may  vary  from  age  to  age,  this  is  the 
ideal  to  which  subsequent  generations  ever  return,  —  the  ideal 
of  an  education  that  will  produce  the  free  man. 

The  absolutely  free  man  is  the  philosopher,  —  the  one 
alone  who  knows  and  can  appreciate  the  truth,  the  one  who 
can  with  profit  devote  his  life  to  the  contemplation  of  eter- 
nal truth,  the  one  to  whom  the  guidance  of  society  should  be 
given.  The  dialectic  of  Plato  includes  philosophical  truth, 
moral  truth,  religious  truth.  With  Plato  Greek  life  "  ad- 
vances from  the  love  of  what  is  sensibly  beautiful  to  the  love 
of  what  is  morally  beautiful."  Plato  discusses  these  truths 
and  through  his  ideal  scheme  of  education  seeks  to  hand 
them  on  to  others.  However  deficient  his  scheme  may  be 
in  adaptability  to  existing  conditions,  he  at  least  strikes  the 
Greek  harmony  of  the  medium,  for  the  ideals  of  life  and 
education  of  The  Republic  avoid  the  selfish  surrender  to  the 
demands  of  the  practical  life  that  characterized  the  sophist 
teaching,  and  the  equally  selfish  withdrawal  from  its  studies 
that  characterized  the  later  intellectual  life  of  the  philosophi- 
cal schools,  even  of  that  which  bore  Plato's  own  name.  It 
is  in  this  significance  of  the  term  knowledge  that  Plato  held 
with  Christ,  that  "ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free." 

Plato  is  far  beyond  the  ideas  of  his  own  and  of  subsequent 
times  in  one  respect,  that  alone  would  make  his  ideal  scheme 
noteworthy.  This  is  in  regard  to  the  education  of  women. 
Speaking  of  the  administration  of  the  ideal  state,  which  to 
him  includes  all  general  social  activities,  he  enunciates  this 
general  principle  underlying  all  his  educational  scheme : 
"  Neither  a  woman  as  a  woman,  nor  a  man  as  a  man  has  any 
special  function,  but  the  gifts  of  nature  are  equally  diffused 


Greek  Education  141 

in  both  sexes ;  all  the  pursuits  of  man  are  the  pursuits  of 
woman  also,  and  in  all  of  them  a  woman  is  only  a  weaker 
man."  So  far  as  women  have  the  same  qualities  of  char- 
acter they  are  to  be  educated  and  to  be  adapted  to  services 
in  society  as  men  are.  The  education  of  women  is  to  be 
settled  on  the  same  principles  as  that  of  men  and  to  include 
the  same  subjects,  however  much  it  may  differ  in  detail. 
The  differences  lie  in  the  difference  in  character,  not  in  the 
difference  of  sex :  "  a  man  and  a  woman,  when  they  both 
have  the  soul  of  a  physician,  may  be  said  to  have  the  same 
nature,"  says  Plato,  and  hence  should  have  the  same  educa 
tion.  It  has  taken  more  than  twenty  centuries  to  approxi 
mate  in  practice  the  principle  established  in  The  Republic. 

One  other  principle  of  education,  fundamental  to  Tht> 
Republic,  must  not  be  overlooked.  The  Republic  presented 
no  ideal  scheme  for  mere  pastime  or  amusement,  but  afforded 
concrete  moral  guidance  for  the  youth  of  his  times ;  hence  in 
the  ideal  plan  of  education,  theory  and  practice  are  ever 
united.  Theory  was  but  the  guide  to  higher  practice. 
Accepting  the  existing  organization  of  elementary  education, 
in  the  method  of  which  we  have  seen  that  practice  and 
theory  were  ever  united,  Plato  provided  for  the  same  union 
in  the  two  periods  of  higher  education.  In  the  study  of  the 
sciences — from  twenty  to  thirty  —  the  theoretical  discipline 
was  ever  to  receive  test  and  confirmation  in  the  performance 
of  practical  social  duties.  And  if  the  period  from  thirty  to 
thirty- five  was  to  be  wholly  devoted  to  the  study  of  phi- 
losophy, of  ethics,  and  of  religion  —  that  is  of  truth  —  it  was 
but  a  preparation  for  the  long  service  of  the  state,  which 
again  was  but  a  training  or  discipline  of  a  practical  char- 
acter. Again,  though  at  fifty  the  philosopher  was  to  be 
exempted  from  these  routine  duties  and  to  devote  himself 
anew  to  the  study  of  the  truth,  even  yet  as  counselor  and 
judge  he  was  to  unite  practical  duties  with  theoretical  in- 
terests and  intellectual  pursuits.  In  truth,  with  Plato,  as  is  to 


142  History  of  Education 

be  seen  more  clearly  with  Aristotle,  the  theoretical  never  had 
that  connotation  of  remoteness  from  life  possessed  by  the 
term  in  its  modern  use. 

Theoretical  knowledge  is  that  knowledge  of  the  highest 
good,  necessary  as  a  guide  to  the  practical  good.  As  the 
hunter  turns  over  the  captured  game  to  the  cook,  as  the  gen- 
eral hands  over  the  captured  city  to  the  statesman,  so  the 
philosopher  hands  over  theoretical  knowledge  to  the  crafts- 
man or  the  ordinary  citizen  as  a  guide  to  successful  conduct 
in  regard  to  any  interest  in  life.  The  most  abstract  of  all 
pursuits,  the  study  of  dialectic,  is  after  all  most  closely  united 
with  the  practical  life ;  for  in  one  is  determined  those 
"  goods "  that  are  to  be  practiced  in  the  other.  Without 
such  a  constant  interaction  of  "theory"  and  "practice,"  the 
one  cannot  be  true  nor  the  other  good.  Thus  is  made  con- 
scious in  Plato,  and  later  in  Aristotle,  that  which  is  latent  in 
the  old  Greek  practice,  —  that  which  has  become  one  of  the 
most  vitalizing  ideas  in  present  educational  work,  —  namely, 
the  union  of  thought  and  action,  of  learning  and  doing,  of  the 
reflective  and  the  constructive  processes.  "  The  best  kind 
of  knowledge  —  the  knowledge  of  what  makes  life  worth 
living  —  cannot  be  won  except  by  a  mind  and  character 
trained  and  matured  in  the  school  of  life  ;  and  again,  no  good 
work  can  be  done  in  the  arena  of  practice  unless  inspired  by 
the  highest  spirit  of  study,  —  the  vital  enthusiasm  for  truth 
and  reality." 

The  Practical  Defects  in  the  Platonic  scheme  are  readily  seen 
and  easily  condemned,  though  such  condemnation  is  aside 
from  the  real  point  of  value.  The  extreme  aristocratic  senti- 
ment which  inspires  both,  whether  it  is  the  aristocracy  of 
intellect  of  The  Republic  or  the  theocratic  aristocracy  of  The 
Laws,  puts  both  works  out  of  sympathy  with  existing  life,  and 
makes  them  distasteful  to  modern  thought.  The  pronounced 
socialistic  character  of  both  schemes,  which  gave  to  the  state 
absolute  control  of  the  whole  life  of  man,  shows  a  lack  of 


Greek  Education  143 

appreciation  of  the  achievements  of  that  life  of  a  free  democ- 
racy that  made  possible  the  very  works  of  Plato  himself. 
The  provincialism  of  those  ideal  states,  as  well  as  the  narrow 
life  prescribed  for  the  citizens  therein,  is  again  contrary  to  the 
dawning  conviction  as  well  as  growing  tendency  in  Greek  life 
that  led  to  the  formation  of  a  cosmopolitan  society,  broad  in 
its  sympathies  and  great  in  its  intellectual  achievements. 
The  realization  of  these  tendencies  soon  rendered  these  views 
of  Plato,  narrow  in  these  subjects,  antiquated  and  devoid  of 
influence.  In  his  views  on  slavery,  child  exposure,  the  status 
of  the  industrial  class,  there  is  no  advance  beyond  the  degrad- 
ing views  and  practices  of  the  Greeks.  Though  a  higher 
position  is  assigned  to  women,  especially  in  regard  to  educa- 
tion, the  family,  as  at  Sparta,  is  wholly  subjected  to  the  con- 
trol of  the  state  for  the  rearing  of  children.  While  ostensi- 
bly a  scheme  for  the  development  and  protection  of  individ- 
ualism, in  some  respects  and  at  some  points  there  are  strange 
limitations  on  the  rights  of  the  individual.  In  The  Laws  this 
reactionary  tendency  is  so  extreme  that  even  the  liberty  of 
opinion  is  restricted,  and  those  who  do  not  conform  to  the 
doctrines  of  the  law  given  are  punishable  with  imprisonment. 
The  great  practical  defect  of  all  the  educational  theorists, 
more  potent  with  Plato  because  evident  in  his  theory,  was 
that  they  did  not  actually  introduce  or  lead  their  pupils  into 
the  practical  life.  This  is  true  despite  the  fact  previously 
noted,  that  the  Platonic  conception  of  "  theory  "  was  never 
separated  from  practice.  Knowledge  is  virtue,  taught 
Socrates,  but  he  did  not  show  how  one  who  possessed 
knowledge  would  be  led  irresistibly  to  do  the  right  act. 
Plato  taught  that,  after  their  perfection  in  philosophy,  the 
philosophical  class  should  govern  society ;  but  he  did  not 
indicate  how,  otherwise  than  through  the  possession  of  truth, 
philosophers  could  be  led  to  devote  themselves  to  a  life  of 
practical  service.  That  in  the  school  of  his  own  followers 
they  were  not  led  to  do  so,  but,  on  the  contrary,  developed  into 


144  History  of  Education 

the  most  exclusive  life,  is  evidence  of  the  insufficiency  of  his 
teachings  on  this  vital  point.  In  his  wonderful  allegory  of  the 
cave  (The  Republic,  Bk.  VII,  5 14-51 8) those  who  have  groped 
their  way  out  of  the  darkness  and  have  gradually  come  to  see 
the  world  as  it  is,  return  into  the  cave  to  lead  out  their  fellow- 
mortals  or  to  make  their  life  in  the  cave  more  endurable ;  but 
there  is  no  indication  whatever  concerning  how  this  is  to  be 
brought  about.  There  remains  both  in  theory  and  practice 
this  unbridged  gap  between  the  philosopher's  possession  of 
knowledge  and  the  practical  life  of  a  citizen.  Even  though, 
as  has  been  seen,  the  Socratic  and  Platonic  knowledge  was,  in 
its  highest  form,  a  knowledge  of  the  good,  yet  it  was  knowl- 
edge intellectually,  not  emotionally,  apprehended.  There  is 
no  provision  in  his  thought  for  the  development  of  the  motive, 
the  good  will,  —  aside  from  growth  in  the  possession  of 
knowledge.  The  defect  is  not  that  there  is  a  failure  in  the 
ideal  scheme  to  unite  theory  and  practice,  for,  as  has  been 
seen,  this  was  constantly  done;  but  rather  that  the  actual 
education  of  the  Athenian  youth  was  an  intellectual  rather 
than  a  moral  process,  and  that  in  the  ideal  scheme  for  the 
education  of  a  philosophical  class  the  emotional  or  volitional, 
as  opposed  to  the  intellectual  basis  of  the  moral  life,  was  not 
considered. 

The  Practical  Influence  of  these  two  educational  dialogues, 
The  Republic  and  The  Laws,  is  indirect  and  remote.  Save 
m  the  formation  of  philosophical  schools,  to  be  mentioned 
later,  their  immediate  influence  was  very  slight.  In  the  study 
of  ideas,  as  provided  for  in  the  higher  training  of  the  philoso- 
phers, there  was  formulated  a  wholly  new  intellectual  inter- 
est in  life,  which,  with  the  fusion  of  the  Christian  faith  and 
the  Greek  philosophy,  was  to  give  to  subsequent  centuries 
their  chief  subject  of  intellectual  interest,  —  the  study  of  dia- 
lectic. In  the  distinction  between  the  rhetorical  and  grammati- 
cal study  of  literature  of  the  early  education  and  the  scientific 
studies  of  mathematics,  astronomy,  and  music  (or  acoustics), 


Greek  Education  145 

there  lies  the  basis  of  differentiation  between  the  trivium  and 
quadrivium  which  together  were  to  constitute  the  curriculum 
of  at  least  ten  mediaeval  centuries.  In  the  character  of  the 
study  of  mathematics  and  the  sciences  for  idealistic  rather  than 
for  practical  purposes  and  in  the  drawing  of  this  very  distinc- 
tion, is  found  the  basis  for  the  disciplinary  conception  of  edu- 
cation as  later  worked  out  by  the  Schoolmen  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  practical  value  of  these  subjects  is  discarded  as  of 
secondary  importance.  Only  as  they  are  serviceable  in  devel- 
oping this  sense  of  the  contemplation  of  the  good,  do  they 
possess  high  educational  value.  Arithmetic  is  "a  study 
which  leads  naturally  to  reflection,  and  is  of  the  kind  we  have 
been  seeking,"  says  Plato  in  his  search  for  the  proper  sub- 
jects of  study,  "  but  has  never  been  rightfully  used  ;  for  it 
really  is  of  use  in  drawing  us  toward  being."  Again  he  says, 
"  Arithmetic  has  a  very  great  and  elevating  effect,  compel- 
ling the  soul  to  reason  about  abstract  number,  and  rebelling 
against  the  introduction  of  visible  or  tangible  objects  into  the 
argument."  Herein  is  to  be  found  the  distinction  which  in 
later  generations  is  to  be  used  as  the  basis  of  a  conception 
of  education  very  different  from  that  formulated  by  Plato 
(Chapter  IX). 

The  scheme  for  the  education  of  the  philosopher  during 
the  five-year  period  when  he  was  to  withdraw  entirely  from 
practical  life  in  the  contemplation  of  the  good,  and  of  the 
period  in  life  following  actual  service,  which,  as  a  life  of 
uninterrupted  contemplation  and  intellectual  satisfaction,  was 
held  up  as  the  highest  life,  was  responsible  for  one  other  pro- 
found social  result.  Without  question  the  general  practical 
effect  of  The  Republic  was  to  emphasize  the  life  of  calm 
repose,  of  philosophical  inquiry,  of  intellectual  activity  as  the 
highest  type  of  life.  Contemptuous  of  the  interests  of  the 
industrial  life,  indifferent  to  the  practical  claims  of  society, 
callous  to  the  old  religious  influences,  the  philosopher  of 
post-Platonic  times  withdrew  from  all  to  pursue  a  life  of 


146  History  of  Education 

reflection,  of  intellectual  activity,  and  aesthetic  enjoyment, 
but  withal  a  life  as  selfish  and  individualistic  as  that  of  the 
most  indifferent  citizen  or  scoffing  sophist.  Such  was  the 
ideal  of  the  tendency  which  the  work  of  Plato  encouraged, 
though  he  was  trying  to  point  the  way  out  of  the  maze. 
Even  before  the  dawn  of  the  Christian  era  there  were  many 
who  had  come  to  look  upon  such  a  life  as  possessing  religious 
and  moral  merit.  To  this  tendency  was  added  an  element  of 
Oriental  asceticism  which  considered  that  the  sacrifice  entailed 
in  the  withdrawal  from  social  intercourse,  the  rigid  control  of 
the  appetite,  the  absence  of  the  ordinary  comforts  of  life,  and 
the  endurance  of  physical  pain  possessed  peculiar  moral  effi- 
cacy. In  this  way  the  Platonic  philosophy  entered  with  Ori- 
ental asceticism  into  the  foundation  of  Christian  monasticism. 

In  yet  one  other  respect  Platonism  reacted  practically  upon 
the  life  of  subsequent  generations.  By  making  it  apparent 
that  there  was  a  life  of  high  aspiration  and  endeavor  separable 
from  and  higher  than  citizenship,  the  way  was  prepared  for 
the  establishment  of  the  Christian  Church.  Even  in  The 
Republic  the  philosophers  were,  so  to  speak,  outside  the  ranks 
of  citizenship  and  exercised  their  control  from  without  by 
despotic  authority.  In  reality  the  philosophers  of  the  Pla- 
tonic group  had  little  or  no  interest  in  public  affairs.  With 
the  organization  of  these  and  similar  groups  of  philosophers 
into  schools,  an  institution  extra-state,  even  extra-social,  was 
formed ;  while  membership  in  these  came  to  be  looked  upon 
not  only  as  permissible  but  in  the  highest  degree  worthy. 
When  the  Christian  religion  was  introduced  as  but  another 
one  of  these  schools  holding  peculiar  doctrines,  following 
ideals  of  conduct  sharply  differentiated  from  ordinary  social 
customs,  and  considering  the  type  of  life  represented  by  it  as 
greatly  superior  to  the  life  of  the  ordinary  citizen,  it  found 
the  way  well  prepared  both  in  theory  and  in  actual  practice 
by  Plato  and  his  followers. 

Aristotle  (384-322  B.C.),  as  the  one  of  these  educational 


Greek  Education  147 

theorists  that  had  the  greatest  influence  upon  subsequent  times, 
the  one  who  in  his  breadth  of  interests  and  activities  more 
nearly  approximated  modern  times,  and  who  by  common  con- 
sent bears  the  reputation  of  the  best-educated  man  of  any  age, 
deserves  the  fullest  consideration.  And  yet,  since  much  that 
has  been  said  of  Plato  is  also  true  of  Aristotle,  this  account 
may  be  abbreviated  without  loss  of  comprehensiveness  by 
comparison  of  Aristotle  with  his  master,  Plato,  and  with 
Socrates. 

Advance  beyond  the  Idea  of  Plato. —  In  one  fundamental 
point  the  two  great  philosophers  were  in  agreement ;  each 
taught  that  the  highest  of  all  arts  that  man  can  aspire  to 
possess,  is  that  of  Politics  —  the  art  of  so  directing  society  as 
to  produce  the  greatest  good  for  mankind.  The  success  of 
the  outcome  of  the  art  of  the  statesman  depends  upon  having 
the  proper  material  to  deal  with  :  consequently  the  first  in- 
terest of  the  statesman  is  to  provide  a  properly  equipped  and 
properly  disposed  group  of  citizens. 

The  production  of  such  a  citizen  body  is  the  work  of  educa- 
tion, which  thus  becomes  the  immediate  object  of  the  states- 
man and  a  most  important  part  of  the  science  of  politics.  This 
position  accounts  for  the  very  favorable  opinion  which  both 
Plato  and  Aristotle  held  of  the  Spartan  and  Cretan  education, 
for  they  felt  that  these  two  states  alone  recognized  the  full 
political  importance  of  education  and  made  of  it  a  component 
part  of  statecraft.  At  the  same  time  Aristotle  is  most  insist- 
ent in  indicating  his  opposition  to  both  the  ends  and  the 
means  of  Dorian  education.  With  both  philosophers  the 
treatment  of  education  forms  but  a  portion  of  their  works  upon 
politics.  One  other  point  of  agreement  follows  as  a  corollary 
from  the  previous  principle.  If  education  is  the  preparation 
of  the  citizen  for  the  good  life  (and  according  to  both  men  the 
best  in  life  is  not  obtained  until  after  the  practical  training  in 
the  actual  service  of  the  state)  ;  if,  as  both  held,  this  highest 
good  is  to  be  reached  only  through  this  service,  which  develops 


148  History  of  Education 

both  the  appreciation  for  and  the  ability  to  use  the  still  highei 
goods  of  life  —  if  these  things  be  true,  it  follows  that  educa 
tion  is  a  life  process  wherein  each  particular  stage  has  its 
appropriate  good  and  its  immediate  end,  and  also  wherein  the 
ultimate  goal  is  a  life  of  intellectual  activity  and  enjoyment 
made  possible  by  the  performance  of  the  lesser  duties  in 
life. 

While  Plato  sketched  such  a  life  in  his  ideal  scheme  in  a 
dialogue  wherein  the  literary  form  is  most  important  and  the 
scientific  formulation  of  principles  is  lacking,  Aristotle,  on 
the  other  hand,  has  left  us  the  logical  exposition  of  these 
scientific  principles  in  the  form  of  lectures  delivered  to  his 
students,  which,  however,  lack  the  literary  charm  of  the  dia- 
logues and  which  unfortunately  do  not  include  the  formula- 
tion of  his  perfected  educational  system. 

Formulation  of  the  Ideal.  —  The  solution  offered  by  Aris- 
totle of  the  conflict  between  individual  interests  and  social 
welfare,  his  formulation  of  the  highest  good  in  life  and  con- 
sequently of  the  aim  in  education,  is  quite  different  from  that 
of  Plato.  Plato  found  this  solution  in  the  gradual  acquirement 
of  ideas  that  possessed  independent  existence, — a  possession 
which  in  the  individual  constituted  virtue.  To  Aristotle, 
ideas  had  no  independent  reality,  but  existed  only  as  forms,  em- 
bodied in  objects  and  giving  them  individuality  and  existence. 
This  ultimate  good,  which  Plato  sought  in  the  consciousness 
of  the  individual,  Aristotle  sought  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
race.  To  him  the  formal  goal  for  which  every  individual 
strove,  the  object  of  the  state,  the  bond  in  life  between  the 
individual  and  his  fellows,  was  happiness.  So  fundamental  is 
this  distinction  that  it  demands  some  further  elucidation. 

Aristotle  made  an  advance  beyond  Plato  through  his  clearer 
psychological  analysis,  in  that  he  discriminated  more  clearly 
between  the  intellectual  and  the  volitional  activities  of  the 
mind.  Virtue  consisted  not  in  knowledge  —  that  is  wise  in- 
sight—  but  in  a  state  of  the  will.  A  state  of  the  will  is  not 


Greek  Education  149 

so  much  a  condition  as  it  is  a  process ;  hence  goodness,  the 
highest  end  attainable  by  man,  is  not  a  condition  but  an 
activity.  Since  they  indicate  in  the  clearest  manner  both  his 
agreement  with  and  his  divergence  from  the  solution  given 
by  Plato,  Aristotle's  own  words  deserve  space  here:  "Now 
our  definition  is  in  harmony  with  those  (the  Platonists)  who 
say  that  happiness  is  goodness  or  some  form  of  goodness ; 
for  activity  according  to  goodness  implies  goodness.  Yet 
there  is,  I  take  it,  no  small  difference  between  the  conception 
of  the  highest  good  as  a  possession,  and  that  of  the  highest 
good  as  in  use;  between  the  conception  of  it  as  a  condition, 
and  the  conception  of  it  as  an  activity." 

The  idea  of  Plato  existed  only  as  form  ;  Aristotle,  on  the 
other  hand,  dealt  ever  with  concrete  embodiments  of  ideas, 
with  the  facts  of  nature,  of  history,  or  of  the  soul  of  man. 
Reality  with  Aristotle  consisted  in  the  accomplishment  of  its 
end,  by  any  given  object,  entity,  or  fact;  in  the  performance 
of  its  appropriate  or  highest  function  :  hence  reality  is  activ- 
ity, or  performance  of  function,  or  a  "  becoming,"  whether  it 
be  a  phenomenon  of  nature  (physical),  or  of  man  (social). 
In  regard  to  man  these  doctrines  that  possess  the  chief  sig- 
nificance for  us  in  their  educational  connection,  are  worked 
out  fully  in  The  Ethics. 

"  The  function  of  man,  then,  is  an  activity  of  the  soul  of 
a  rational,  or  at  least  not  of  an  irrational,  character."  The 
good  for  man  is  defined  as  "  an  activity  of  the  soul  according 
to  goodness ;  and,  if  there  are  more  kinds  of  goodness  than 
one,  in  accordance  with  that  which  is  best  and  most  com- 
plete." Later  goodness  is  defined  as  being  of  two  kinds, 
"  goodness  of  intellect  and  goodness  of  character."  The 
first  of  these  is  produced  and  increased  by  teaching  and  is 
the  product  of  experience  and  time ;  goodness  of  character 
is  the  outcome  of  habit.  As  nature  does  not  give  to  some  or 
withhold  from  some  goodness  of  character,  it  renders  each  of 
us  capable  of  attaining  or  receiving  this  goodness  by  forma- 


150  History  of  Education 

tion  of  habit.  Goodness  consists,  then,  in  well  being  and 
well  doing.  Well  being  is  the  goodness  of  the  intellect,  con- 
nected closely  with  the  possession  of  universal  truth  of  the 
Platonic  school  and  providing  for  the  development  and  the 
welfare  of  the  individual;  well  doing  is  the  goodness  of 
action,  acquired  through  habituation  and  represents  the  social 
aspect  of  the  ideal.  Virtue  does  not  consist  in  mere  knowl- 
edge of  the  good ;  but  in  the  functioning  of  this  knowledge, 
—  of  ideas  or  principles.  In  this  respect  Aristotle,  while  a 
foreigner  to  Athens,  represents  more  truly  than  Plato  the 
common  attitude  of  the  Greeks,  mentioned  previously,  in 
considering  goodness  as  some  form  of  efficiency  or  excel- 
lency, as  some  superiority  in  conduct  rather  than  in  a  state 
of  mind. 

Happiness  is  the  result  of  such  activity,  of  such  function- 
ing of  ideas,  in  actual  life.  Happiness  is  defined  in  The 
Ethics  as  "  the  conscious  activity  of  the  highest  part  of  man 
according  to  the  law  of  his  own  excellence,  not  unaccom- 
panied by  adequate  external  conditions."  Here  again  are 
found  both  individual  and  social  elements.  The  highest  part 
of  man  is  reason  :  by  this  he  is  distinguished  from  all  other 
animals.  Consequently  his  goodness  consists  in  the  function- 
ing of  reason,  —  in  the  accomplishment  of  his  highest  end, 
—  the  control  of  life  by  reason.  This  gives  the  "  well-being  " 
side.  The  greater  part  of  The  Ethics  is  devoted  to  a  discus- 
sion of  the  other  question  ;  namely,  "  What  is  the  law  of 
man's  own  excellence  ?  "  This,  in  brief,  is  found  to  be  in  his 
political  or  social  nature ;  "  Man  is  by  nature  a  political 
animal."  Consequently  man's  highest  excellence,  his  good- 
ness, is  again  found  to  be  the  putting  into  operation,  in  his 
life  with  his  fellows,  of  these  ideas  or  principles  of  conduct 
of  universal  validity.  Virtue  and  happiness  consist  in  this 
life  of  action ;  thus  the  well-doing  side,  or  goodness  of  char 
acter,  is  provided  for. 

One  further  Aristotelian  distinction  must  here  be  made,  in 


Greek  Education  151 

order  that  one  may  understand  his  conception  of  highest 
goodness  and  happiness.  The  distinction  is  that  between 
the  theoretical  activities,  —  those  that  have  their  end  in  the 
activity  itself,  —  and  the  practical  activities,  those  that  have 
their  end  in  some  product  beyond  the  activity  itself.  The 
same  distinction  holds  in  regard  to  science :  the  science  of 
surveying  is  a  practical  science  having  its  object  or  "  end  " 
in  the  accomplishment  of  some  external  service ;  the  science 
of  geometry  is  theoretical,  since  the  end  of  such  a  study  is 
found  in  the  demonstration  of  the  proposition,  —  in  the 
activity  itself.  Now  of  all  practical  sciences,  that  of  politics 
is  highest,  for  it  is  the  practical  science  of  the  good  life. 
There  is,  however,  a  higher  theoretical  science,  —  that  of  the 
intellectual  life,  wherein  the  object  is  the  good  life,  the  life 
of  reason.  This  life  is  good  in  itself.  As  war  is  for  the 
purpose  of  peace,  business  for  the  purpose  of  leisure,  so  the 
political  life  is  after  all  for  the  sake  of  the  "speculative," 
that  is,  the  intellectual  life.  This  is  the  highest  excellence 
of  man  and  the  highest  type  of  life,  and  is  to  be  reached 
through  the  practical  life.  So  "  the  activity  of  God,  which 
excels  all  others  in  blessedness,  will  be  speculative,  and  accord- 
ingly that  activity  which  is  most  akin  to  it  will  be  the  happi- 
est. And  it  is  a  proof  of  this  that  the  lower  animals  have  no 
capacity  for  speculation,  cannot  attain  to  happiness.  ...  It 
follows  then  that  happiness  is  coextensive  with  speculation 
(i.e.  with  intellectual  activity)  and  that  those  who  have  the 
greatest  power  of  speculation  will  be  happiest,  not  acciden- 
tally, but  by  virtue  of  their  speculation  ;  for  speculation  (intel- 
lectual activity)  is  valuable  in  itself." 

It  is  evident  from  this  use  of  the  term  speculation  that  it 
does  not  have  the  connotation  of  unreality  associated  with 
our  use  of  the  term,  for  it  is  the  highest  reality ;  nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  does  it  indicate  exactly  the  life  of  contemplation, 
certainly  not  that  of  isolation  into  which  the  Platonic  ideal 
developed.  This  life  of  intellectual  activity  has  a  well-doing 


152  History  of  Education 

as  well  as  the  well  being  side.  The  scientist,  the  poet,  the 
theologian,  the  literary  writer,  the  student  of  whatsoever  field 
who  has  been  prepared  for  his  vocation  by  actual  experience 
in  life,  leads  the  life  of  the  Aristotelian  speculation.  In  this 
principle  again  we  arrive  at  the  Greek  idea  of  a  liberal  educa- 
tion —  the  training  for  a  life  which  is  an  ultimate  good  and, 
withal,  in  itself  the  highest  end,  —  the  life  of  intellectual 
activity,  which  constitutes  the  highest  virtue  and  produces 
the  greatest  happiness. 

In  the  formulation  of  this  ideal  Aristotle  avoids  the  great 
difficulty  that  Plato  experienced  in  uniting  theory  and  prac- 
tice. Whereas  Plato  merely  in  his  description  of  an  ideal 
education  indicates  that  the  theoretical  and  the  practical  are 
never  to  be  separated,  but  omits  to  give  a  philosophical 
basis  for  this  union  and  fails  to  check  the  tendency,  even 
among  his  own  followers,  to  neglect  their  obligations  to 
society,  Aristotle  unites  the  two  in  his  conception  of  the  two- 
fold nature  of  virtue  and  happiness.  In  the  conclusion  of 
The  Ethics,  here  quoted,  he  clearly  states  that  with  the  for- 
mulation of  the  theory,  the  task  is  only  half  accomplished. 

"  Now  if  arguments  and  theories  were  able  by  themselves 
to  make  people  good,  they  would,  in  the  words  of  Theognis, 
be  entitled  to  receive  high  and  great  rewards,  and  it  is  with 
theories  that  we  should  have  to  provide  ourselves.  But  the 
truth  apparently  is  that,  though  they  are  strong  enough  to 
encourage  and  stimulate  young  men  of  liberal  minds,  though 
they  are  able  to  inspire  with  goodness  a  character  that  is 
naturally  noble  and  sincerely  loves  the  beautiful,  they  are 
incapable  of  converting  the  mass  of  men  to  goodness  and 
beauty  of  character." 

Since  this  is  true,  and  since  what  nature  has  done  for  the 
character  of  the  individual  is  beyond  man's  control,  all  that 
can  be  done  is  to  train  the  individual  through  the  formation 
of  habit.  Then,  when  good  habits  have  been  formed  and  a 
good  nature  has  been  discovered,  this  work  in  training  can 


Greek  Education  153 

be  completed  by  the  work  of  instruction  in  theory.  All  this 
is  the  work  of  education.  Hence  the  treatment  of  the  gen- 
eral problems  in  The  Ethics  leads  to  the  discussion  of  the 
practical  means  in  The  Politics,  which,  like  The  Republic,  is 
a  treatise  on  education  in  its  broadest  sense.  Prior  to  an 
examination  of  Aristotle's  scheme  of  education,  one  further 
comparison  with  the  previous  development  of  Greek  thought 
demands  attention. 

The  Method  of  Education.  —  In  brief,  the  method  of  Aris- 
totle is  objective  and  scientific,  as  opposed  to  the  philo- 
sophical or  introspective  method  of  Plato.  Plato  seeks  truth 
through  the  direct  vision  of  reason,  and  seeks  the  confirma- 
tion of  reason  only  in  the  consciousness  of  man.  Aristotle 
seeks  truth  primarily  in  the  objective  facts  of  nature,  of 
social  life,  and  in  the  soul  of  man,  and  seeks  confirmation 
primarily  in  the  historic  consciousness  of  the  race.  Conse- 
quently there  is  a  constant  reference  to  what  "  the  many  " 
or  what  "  the  wise  "  have  thought,  and  an  examination  of  the 
greatest  diversity  of  views,  of  historic  facts,  and  of  tradition 
and  custom. 

To  Aristotle,  the  dialectic  method  of  Plato,  which  sought 
truth  in  the  supersensuous  region  of  mind,  produced  truth 
of  only  formal  value ;  he,  on  the  contrary,  sought  for  truth 
in  the  experience  of  the  race  and  developed  as  his  method 
the  inductive  process.  This  he  applied  both  objectively  and 
subjectively.  The  Socratic  dialectic  had  made  only  the 
latter  application.  Only  after  he  had  found  the  general 
meaning  of  his  terms  and  of  his  facts  in  the  general  con- 
sciousness of  mankind,  did  Aristotle  seek  for  confirmation  by 
the  introspective  process.  Though  the  inductive  and  deduc- 
tive processes  of  reason  had  been  distinguished,  and  of  course 
as  modes  of  thought  had  been  coextensive  in  their  history 
with  the  history  of  the  human  race,  with  Aristotle  they 
became  conscious  procedures ;  for  he  it  was  that  first  formu- 
lated the  logic  of  each.  "There  is  one  point,"  he  says  in 


1 54  History  of  Education 

his  attempt  to  get  at  the  meaning  of  the  terms  we  have  been 
explaining,  in  his  adoption  of  the  inductive  method,  "as  to 
which  we  must  be  clear,  the  difference  between  reasoning 
down  from  first  principles  and  reasoning  up  to  first  prin- 
ciples. Plato  used  to  raise  the  question  quite  rightly,  and  to 
ask  whether,  in  a  given  case,  the  way  lay  from  first  principles 
or  to  first  principles,  as  in  the  race-course  from  the  judges  to 
the  extremity  of  the  course  or  in  the  opposite  direction." 

Not  only  more  widely  than  any  man  previous  to  his 
times,  but  also  more  widely  than  any  man  in  subsequent 
ages,  Aristotle  used  this  inductive  process.  Consequently, 
since  he  applied  it  in  the  formulation  of  his  philosophical 
system  to  all  previous  systems  of  Greek  thought,  he  repre- 
sents the  culmination  of  the  Greek  intellectual  life ;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  since  he  applied  it  most  extensively  to  wholly 
new  fields  of  investigation,  he  became  the  father  of  practi- 
cally all  of  the  modern  sciences. 

The  Scheme  of  Education  in  The  Politics.  —  To  return  to 
the  topic  of  the  means  for  realizing  this  life  of  well  being 
and  well  doing.  In  The  Politics,  where  he  is  discussing  the 
nature  and  the  elements  of  permanency  in  constitutions,  the 
relation  of  education  to  politics  is  thus  stated  :  "  Of  all 
things  which  I  have  mentioned  that  which  contributes  most 
to  the  permanence  of  constitutions  is  the  adaptation  of 
education  to  the  form  of  government."  In  The  Ethics  he 
approaches  the  subject  as  follows:  "We  laid  it  down  that 
the  end  of  Politics  is  the  highest  good ;  and  there  is  nothing 
that  this  science  takes  so  much  pains  with  as  producing  a 
certain  character  in  the  citizens,  that  is,  making  them  good 
and  able  to  do  fine  actions."  Now  man  possesses  both  body 
and  soul ;  and  the  soul  is  composed  of  both  rational  and  irra- 
tional parts.  Hence,  the  ideal  education  must  consist,  first, 
of  education  for  the  body  —  gymnastics ;  second,  education 
for  the  irrational  part  of  the  soul,  that  is,  the  desires,  passions, 
and  appetites,  consisting  of  music  and  literature  or  the  moral 


Greek  Education  155 

education  ;  third,  the  education  of  the  rational  part  of  the 
soul,  through  the  sciences  and  philosophy.  The  first  two 
constitute  the  practical  education  and  hence  are  not  ends  in 
themselves,  but  rather  means  to  the  highest  end,  —  the  life 
of  reason.  Herein  lies  the  basis  of  his  criticism  of  Spartan 
education.  Previously  he  has  praised  the  Spartan  above  all 
other  forms  of  Grecian  education  in  that  the  state  makes  the 
development  of  its  citizens  to  a  predetermined  end  a  con- 
scious aim.  But  because  Sparta  limited  education  to  this 
training  of  the  body  and  in  practical  reason  to  the  exclusion 
of  that  which  forms  an  end  in  itself,  namely,  the  life  of  intel- 
lectual activity,  it  is  to  be  condemned. 

Since  the  exposition  was  either  not  completed  or  has 
not  come  down  to  us,  the  detailed  treatment  of  these  three 
aspects  of  education  in  The  Politics  is  a  fragmentary  one. 
Concerning  the  early  care  of  children  and  the  later  gymnas- 
tic training  he  has  many  practical  suggestions  to  offer  and 
many  criticisms  on  the  established  custom,  especially  the 
Spartan,  which  after  all  he  is  inclined  to  favor.  The  edu- 
cation of  the  body  must  precede  instruction.  Care  of  the 
morals  of  children  should  be  in  the  hands  of  the  government 
and  of  the  parents,  and  not  in  the  hands  of  slaves.  Gymnas- 
tic training  should  aim  at  developing  good  habits,  and  control 
of  the  passions  and  appetites  ;  it  should  not  aim  at  mere 
superiority  in  athletics  nor  at  the  development  of  the  rough- 
ness and  ferocity  of  soldiers.  The  two  phases  of  education 
should  not  go  on  together,  "  for  the  two  kinds  of  labor  are 
opposed  to  one  another,  the  labor  of  the  body  impedes  the 
mind,  and  the  labor  of  the  mind  the  body." 

In  the  second  or  moral  phase  of  education  the  traditional 
subjects  of  music  and  literature  are  accepted  as  the  appro- 
priate means.  Aristotle  takes  a  much  broader  view  of  litera- 
ture than  does  Plato,  and  approves  of  the  use  of  the  poets. 
In  another  work,  he  formulates  the  philosophy  underlying  its 
use  into  a  new  science,  that  of  aesthetics,  which  ever  since 


156  History  of  Education 

has  built  upon  this  work  of  Aristotle  as  a  foundation.  Music 
is  approved  for  these  reasons :  it  is,  first,  an  amusement  or 
form  of  relaxation ;  second,  it  is  a  form  of  intellectual  enjoy- 
ment, in  the  same  sense  as  that  employed  by  Plato ;  last  and 
most  important  of  all,  it  possesses  a  moral  value.  Here  is 
advanced  that  idea  of  "  purgation  "  which  is  further  devel- 
oped in  other  connections,  and  gives  the  conscious  explana- 
tion of  the  use  of  music  by  the  Greeks  as  the  chief  means  of 
moral  education.  "  Rhythm  and  melody  supply  imitations 
of  anger  and  gentleness,  and  also  of  courage  and  temper- 
ance, and  of  virtues  and  vices  in  general,  which  hardly  fall 
short  of  actual  affections,  as  we  know  from  our  own  experi- 
ence, for  in  listening  to  such  changes  our  souls  undergo  a 
change."  This  habit  of  feeling  pleasure  or  pain  at  this 
musical  representation  of  good  or  evil  is  not  far  removed 
from  the  same  feelings  about  the  realities  of  good  and  bad 
in  conduct.  In  this  manner  music,  beyond  all  other  forms 
of  expression  which  appeal  to  us  through  the  senses,  has 
the  power  of  forming  character  in  us  by  "  purging "  the 
mind  of  evil  and  strengthening  the  good  in  us ;  for  "  there 
seems  to  be  in  us  a  sort  of  affinity  to  harmonies  and  rhythms, 
which  makes  some  philosophers  say  that  the  soul  is  harmony, 
others,  that  it  possesses  harmony." 

All  citizens  are  to  share  in  this  education  alike,  though 
slaves  and  artisans  cannot  attain  to  citizenship  and  hence 
not  to  the  good  life,  since  "  it  is  not  possible  to  care  for  the 
things  of  virtue  while  living  the  life  of  the  artisan  or  the 
slave."  With  regard  to  the  education  of  women  Aristotle 
did  not  agree  with  Plato,  as  (basing  his  argument  upon 
a  comparative  study  of  the  sexes  in  lower  animals)  he 
held  that  woman  was  essentially  different  from  man  in 
nature,  and  hence  that  the  former  cannot  profit  by  this 
higher  education  to  be  given  citizens. 

The  details  of  this  higher  education,  that  of  the  rational 
part  of  the  soul,  —  the  one  phase  of  education  which  was 


Greek  Education  157 

an  end  in  itself  and  constituted  the  good  for  all  the  rest, 
—  are  not  given.  The  treatise  ends  here  abruptly,  and 
that  subject  upon  which  above  all  others  Aristotle  could 
have  thrown  light,  is  left  with  mention  only.  From  his 
other  discussions,  however,  we  know  that  this  higher  edu- 
cation would  contain  a  large  element  of  mathematics,  — 
especially  of  geometry,  because  of  its  training  in  deduc- 
tive reasoning,  —  and  also  of  the  mathematical  sciences, 
physics  and  astronomy.  From  Aristotle's  own  example  we 
may  presume  that  it  would  include  the  natural  sciences 
and,  above  all,  dialectic,  including  both  the  philosophical  and 
the  logical  studies  so  thoroughly  developed  in  his  own  school. 

Following  this  "  speculative "  education,  or  rather  along 
with  it,  comes  the  practical  education  in  citizenship.  This 
includes  two  types  of  activities,  the  practical  or  executive, 
and  the  theoretical  or  legislative  and  judicial.  The  citizen 
develops  from  the  former  into  the  latter,  and  comes  to 
devote  more  and  more  of  life  to  purely  intellectual  pur- 
suits. Finally,  those  best  acquainted  with  divine  things 
enter  the  priesthood.  Thus  gradually  the  practical  life 
passes  into  the  "speculative,"  and  the  lesser  goods  are  de- 
veloped into  the  highest  good  of  all, — the  life  good  in  itself. 

Practical  Influence  of  Aristotle.  —  It  was  no  figure  of 
speech  that  Dante  used  when  he  termed  Aristotle  "the 
master  of  those  who  know."  The  one  reason  why  Aris- 
totle and  Plato  also  deserve  so  extended  a  mention  in  an 
outline  of  the  history  of  education  which  purports  to  be 
an  account  of  facts  and  not  of  the  theories  of  a  few  indi- 
viduals is  not  because  of  the  extent  or  even  the  peculiar 
character  of  their  writings,  but  because  of  the  actual  influ- 
ence these  writings  have  had  upon  subsequent  times.  In 
later  chapters,  on  the  Middle  Ages,  on  the  Renaissance,  on 
the  origin  of  modern  science,  the  subject  of  Aristotle's 
influence  must  again  arise ;  hence  a  brief  mention  of  the 
main  outlines  of  his  influence  will  here  suffice. 


158  History  of  Education 

Aristotle  was  the  first  great  scientist  —  the  greatest  sys- 
tematizer,  in  fact,  that  the  world  has  ever  known.  As 
Plato  was  the  great  philosopher  and  initiated  the  lines  of 
inquiry  which  yet  constitute  the  chief  questions  in  every 
branch  of  metaphysics  and  of  ethics,  so  Aristotle  sought  to 
give  to  all  subjects  of  inquiry,  even  those  of  metaphysics 
and  ethics,  a  scientific  form.  Not  content,  however,  with 
giving  scientific  form  to  other  lines  of  inquiry,  he  organ- 
ized as  fundamental  to  all,  the  science  of  the  form  of 
thought.  For  fourteen  hundred  years  after  the  opening  of 
the  Christian  era,  —  indeed  the  period  might  be  extended 
to  include  the  century  of  the  Reformation  itself,  —  no  book, 
save  the  Bible,  had  any  such  influence  as  the  Organon  of 
Aristotle.  This  work  includes,  first,  the  Prior  Analytics,  a 
treatise  on  the  syllogism  or  on  the  elements  of  reasoning  of 
all  kinds;  second,  the  Posterior  Analytics,  or  the  logic  of 
the  deductive  sciences ;  and,  third,  the  Topics,  or  the  art 
of  discussing  subjects  where  demonstration  is  impossible. 
To  these  divisions  of  the  formal  science  which  underlies  all 
science,  subsequent  times  have  added  little  or  nothing,  so 
thorough  was  the  work  of  the  master.  Concerning  the  art 
of  inductive  reasoning,  which  Aristotle  himself  practiced  so 
successfully  and  for  the  first  time  consciously,  he  wrote 
little,  and  that  little  was  lost  to  all  the  Middle  Ages.  So  it 
happened  that  the  first  great  master  of  inductive  reasoning 
fastened  upon  the  human  race  for  a  thousand  years  a  type 
of  intellectual  life  that  was  purely  deductive  in  character, 
and  hence  non-progressive.  Dialectic,  or  the  conscious 
process  of  reasoning,  either  for  the  discovery  of  truth  or  for 
mere  victory  over  an  opponent,  which  first  became  conscious 
with  the  sophists,  which  was  given  a  moral  bent  by  Socrates 
and  a  universal  application  by  Plato,  was  by  Aristotle  given 
universal  form  and  universal  influence. 

So  fundamental  was  Aristotle's  influence  in  these  respects 
that  the  scientific  thinker  as  well  as  the  person  in  everyday 


Greek  Education  159 

life  is  indebted  to  him  for  many  of  the  most  expressive  terms 
in  language.  Such  words  as  end,  indicating  the  final  purpose 
or  cause,  the  term  final  cause  to  indicate  end  in  this  sense, 
the  word  form,  the  word  matter  and  subject-matter  as  we  use 
it  in  education  (from  the  term  indicating  the  timber  which 
the  carpenter  uses),  such  words  as  principle,  maxim,  motive, 
faculty,  energy,  habit,  category,  mean,  and  extreme  are  all  the 
results  of  his  efforts  to  systematize  knowledge. 

Even  more  important  than  words  are  the  very  subjects  of 
study,  or  branches  of  knowledge  which  Aristotle  first  organ- 
ized. Through  the  partial  formulation  of  the  inductive 
method  and  the  application  of  thought  to  new  phases  of 
reality,  almost  wholly  neglected  before  his  times,  he  became 
the  originator  of  many  modern  sciences.  Among  those  upon 
which  he  wrote  treatises  are  physiology,  mechanics,  natural 
philosophy,  or  physics  in  its  broader  principles,  and  the  cor- 
responding biologic  science,  natural  history. 

Universally  recognized  as  the  strongest  of  the  ancients, 
down  to  the  time  of  the  fifteenth-century  Renaissance  Aris- 
totle's name  was  supreme.  Through  scholasticism  (Ch.  IV, 
Sec.  4)  his  work  became  the  basis  of  all  studies,  and  of  all 
educational  institutions  during  the  Middle  Ages.  In  fact  it 
might  be  said  that  during  those  ages,  all  secular  writings, 
save  a  few  by  this  one  man  or  such  works  as  were  based 
directly  upon  his,  dropped  out  of  human  interests. 

His  immediate  influence  in  Greece  was  not  so  funda- 
mental. His  school  of  adherents,  the  Peripatetics,  did  not 
rise  to  his  standard,  made  little  or  no  use  of  induction,  and 
spent  their  time  in  writing  commentaries  or  fruitless  interpre- 
tations and  adaptations,  mostly  upon  isolated  topics.  The 
writings  of  the  master  were  carried  to  Asia  Minor  (287) 
where  for  nearly  two  hundred  years  they  were  lost ;  when 
finally  recovered  they  found  their  way  to  the  Alexandrian 
library  and  later  to  Rome.  Through  translations  into  Ara- 
bic the  knowledge  of  Aristotle  was  kept  alive  among  the 


160  History  of  Education 

Saracens  at  Bagdad,  and  later  throughout  their  empire,  and 
by  them  was  carried  into  Spain.  Thence  as  well  as  from 
the  East  the  Saracen  learning  revived  and  purified  the  Euro- 
pean interest  in  and  knowledge  of  the  master  during  the 
early  university  period. 

THE  COSMOPOLITAN  PERIOD  OF  GREEK  EDUCATION. 
General  Characteristics.  —  During  this  period  the  tendencies 
of  the  transitional  period  become  permanently  fixed.  The 
influence  of  all  the  philosophical  teachers  had  in  practice  but 
strengthened  the  emphasis  upon  the  life  of  retirement  from 
public  duties  and  social  activities  as  the  ideal  of  highest  de- 
velopment. If  the  intellectual  life  is  held  to  be  free  from 
control  of  general  standards  of  social  obligation,  or  at  least 
is  held  to  be  of  greater  worth,  why  should  not  the  standard 
of  the  practical  life  be  determined  by  the  individual  himself  ? 
Thus  the  tendency  toward  individualism  is  confirmed  by  the 
very  forces  that  attempt  to  check  the  growing  evil.  Con- 
sequently there  is  no  development  of  educational  ideals  or 
standards.  Theoretically  there  is  none  possible  beyond  that 
of  Plato  and  Aristotle ;  practically  no  formulation  of  general 
standards  or  ideas  could  take  place  at  all.  Philosophy  ceases 
to  be  the  attempt  to  discover  truth  and  becomes  but  an 
exposition  of  doctrine.  Not  "  What  is  so  ? "  but  "  What  saith 
the  master  ? "  is  ever  the  test.  It  is  not  so  much  a  body  of 
ethical  or  metaphysical  principles  that  holds  the  disciples 
together  into  a  school,  but  rather  the  study  of  a  common 
subject-matter. 

Two  educational  features  characterize  this  period  :  the  one, 
the  conquest  of  the  civilized  world  by  Greek  ideas  and  Greek 
culture ;  the  other,  the  formation  of  definite  types  of  educa- 
tional institutions. 

Spread  of  Greek  Culture.  —  As  Aristotle  through  his 
philosophy  summed  up  all  the  intellectual  life  of  the  past, 


Greek  Education  161 

and  through  his  method  laid  the  basis  for  all  intellectual  life 
of  the  future,  so  through  his  great  pupil,  Alexander  the  Great, 
he  spread  the  culture  of  Greece  throughout  the  known  world 
It  was  through  the  power  of  mind,  though  unconscious,  thai 
Greece  in  an  earlier  day  had  driven  off  the  hordes  of  Asia 
now  through  the  power  of  mind,  consciously  developed  and 
applied,  she  returned  to  make  captive  her  would-be  con- 
queror, as  still  later  she  enthralled  by  the  same  power  her 
Roman  master.  Through  genius  of  administration  Alexan- 
der made  his  preliminary  conquest :  through  the  Greek  cul- 
ture he  aimed  to  make  it  permanent.  Though  his  successors 
furthered  his  plans,  one  alone,  Ptolemy,  carried  them  out  to 
the  full.  Within  a  century  after  Alexander  the  habits  and 
customs  of  all  of  the  East,  —  even  of  the  ever  reserved  Jews, 
—  were  colored  by  those  of  the  Greeks.  Oriental  peoples 
produced  Greek  philosophers ;  Greek  philosophers  in  turn 
accepted  in  essence  the  Hebrew  religion,  or  later  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  Greek  schools,  Greek  theaters,  Greek  baths, 
Greek  institutions  of  every  type  were  to  be  found  in  every 
city  in  the  East.  At  the  time  of  the  Mohammedan  conquest, 
after  almost  a  thousand  years  of  vicissitudes,  the  city  founded 
to  bear  the  name  of  the  conqueror  possessed  400  theaters, 
4000  palaces,  4000  baths,  and  a  library  of  700,000  volumes. 

Through  the  work  of  the  Greeks  during  this  period,  learn- 
ing became,  as  it  remains  now,  universal ;  it  was  the  pos- 
session of  no  peculiar  people,  and  became  independent  of 
time  and  place.  As  learning  took  upon  itself  this  universal 
influence,  it  tended  on  the  other  hand  to  become  individual- 
istic in  character.  The  philosopher  tended  to  withdraw  from 
interest  in  society ;  the  individual,  to  find  the  highest  ends 
in  life  in  states  of  consciousness  rather  than  in  forms  of 
social  activity.  Ethics,  the  philosophy  of  the  moral  life, 
gradually  disassociated  itself  from  the  life  of  political  activity 
and  related  itself  under  the  Oriental,  especially  Jewish,  in- 
fluence with  the  religious  life.  As  a  consequence  both  the 


1 62  History  of  Education 

intellectual  life  and  the  religious  life  tended  to  disassociate 
themselves  from  the  state  and  to  connect  themselves  with 
one  another.  There  results  a  cosmopolitan  tendency  in  the 
intellectual  life,  a  humanitarian  tendency  in  customs  and 
morals,  and  one  toward  the  multiplication  and  toleration  of 
sects  distinguished  by  theological  or  metaphysical  differences. 
Through  the  gradual  acceptance  of  the  Christian  religion  and 
its  modification  by  Greek  thought,  and  the  universal  social 
or  institutional  structure  added  by  the  Roman  people,  the 
composite  civilization  of  mediaeval  and  modern  times  was 
produced  as  the  outcome  of  this  cosmopolitan  era. 

The  Rhetorical  and  Dialectic  Schools.  —  In  the  early  days 
of  the  sophists,  a  movement  toward  the  formation  of  two 
distinct  groups  of  teachers  became  evident :  the  one  sought 
to  prepare  pupils  for  direct  participation  in  public  life 
by  a  training  in  the  art  of  speaking;  the  other  afforded  a 
training  in  argumentative  power  in  speculative  questions  of 
metaphysical  or  ethical  import  usually  debated  in  private.  In 
the  latter  half  of  the  fourth  century  this  movement  resulted  in 
the  formation  of  two  distinct  types  of  school.  Of  these,  the 
rhetorical  schools  were  the  most  distinct,  the  most  numerous, 
and  the  most  influential  practically.  The  work  of  the  soph 
ists  had  given  scientific  shape  to  the  study  of  grammar  and 
of  rhetoric.  To  this  work  Plato  and  Aristotle,  especially 
in  his  philosophical  treatise  on  rhetoric,  contributed.  With 
the  formulation  of  the  science  of  logic  by  Aristotle,  a  third  of 
these  studies  became  organized.  This  study  of  the  structure 
and  arrangement  of  thought  was  pursued  from  two  points  of 
view  :  when  followed  with  a  view  to  determining  the  probable 
truth,  it  was  termed  dialectic;  when  followed  with  a  view  to 
gaining  the  victory  over  an  opponent,  it  was  termed  eristic. 
Naturally  it  was  the  latter  that  had  a  place  in  the  rhetorical 
schools,  which  aimed  to  give  this  practical  power  of  overcom- 
ing an  opponent,  and  for  the  most  part  was  a  direct  prepa- 


Greek  Education  163 

ration  for  the  law  courts  before  which  any  Athenian  citizen 
might  be  called  to  present  or  defend  his  own  case.  The 
work  of  these  schools,  which  became  very  numerous  both  at 
Athens  and  throughout  Greece,  was  to  carry  on  the  study 
of  these  formal  subjects,  just  then  being  organized ;  or,  tak- 
ing for  granted  that  general  culture  had  been  acquired  in 
the  lower  schools,  to  train  more  technically  in  the  effective 
expression  of  thought.  While  the  work  of  these  rhetorical 
teachers  was  formal,  it  was  not  necessarily  superficial,  as  was 
charged  against  the  work  of  their  progenitors,  the  sophists, 
but  for  the  most  part  consisted  in  the  study  of  the  choice  and 
sequence  of  words  and  the  effective  arrangement  of  thought, 
together  with  a  drill  in  argumentation  and  forensic  presen- 
tation. 

To  us  such  an  aim  seems  narrow;  but  this  power  of  effec- 
tive utterance  was  to  them,  as  the  use  of  grammatical  English 
is  now,  at  once  the  test  of  an  education  and  an  indication  of 
a  higher  culture  than  that  contained  in  the  mere  unstudied 
use  of  words.  Such  a  scope  for  the  activities  of  an  educated 
man  seems  to  us  to  be  very  limited ;  but  it  must  be  recalled 
that  public  oratory  then  performed  the  function  that  is  now 
divided  between  the  press,  the  pulpit,  the  bar,  and  the  uni- 
versity. 

As  Socrates  formed  the  transition  from  the  sophists  to 
the  philosophical  schools,  so  Isocrates  (393-338  B.C.)  repre- 
sented the  transition  from  these  latter  to  the  rhetorical 
schools.  There  were  undoubtedly  many  of  these  schools 
before  his  time,  but  with  him  the  transition  from  the  teach- 
ing methods  of  the  sophists  to  a  distinct  type  of  institutional 
work  holding  definite  aims,  was  complete.  He  was  the  most 
distinguished  and  the  most  successful  of  all  these  rhetorical 
teachers,  and  from  his  school  came  some  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful men  of  that  generation.  From  many  points  of  view 
he  is  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from  the  sophists,  among 
whom  indeed  he  numbered  himself ;  yet,  in  the  modesty  of 


1 64  History  of  Education 

his  promises,  in  the  distinct  announcement  that  he  pro- 
fessed  to  be  able  only  to  improve  natural  talent  and  that 
he  trained  for  public  service  as  well  as  individual  advantage, 
he  differed  from  the  typical  sophists.  In  truth,  before  the 
close  of  Isocrates's  life  the  typical  sophists  had  been  re- 
placed by  the  two  types  of  teachers  under  consideration. 
On  the  other  hand,  Isocrates  was  just  as  anxious  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  the  Platonic  type  of  philosophers,  who 
wasted  their  time  in  discussions  concerning  pure  being, 
profitless  alike  to  themselves  and  to  the  public. 

The  school  of  Isocrates  did  much  toward  making  Athens 
the  center  of  the  intellectual  culture  of  the  world  ;  for  schools 
like  his  continued  to  offer  the  highest  practical  training  not 
only  to  the  Greek  but  to  the  Oriental  and  to  the  Roman  for 
many  centuries  afterward.  While  these  schools  were  all 
private,  they  formed  a  component  part  of  the  higher  educa- 
tional system. 

The  dialectic  schools  were  in  reality  but  the  minor  philo- 
sophical schools  of  a  type  similar  to  the  great  philosophical 
schools,  and  are  to  be  considered  as  subordinate  to  them. 
The  following  description  of  the  work  of  these  schools  will 
answer  for  this  less  important  type  as  well. 

The  Philosophical  Schools.  —  Plato  and  Aristotle  gath- 
ered around  themselves  definite  bodies  of  students  who 
were  recognized  as  disciples  and  who  in  themselves  formed 
a  "  school."  But  so  long  as  there  was  no  other  bond  than 
community  of  ideas,  such  a  school  could  not  be  very  distinct 
nor  permanent.  Continuity  and  definiteness  were  added  by  a 
variety  of  circumstances.  First  among  these  was  the  acqui- 
sition of  a  local  habitation,  first  in  the  public  gymnasia, — 
Plato  in  the  Academy,  and  Aristotle  in  the  Lyceum,  —  and 
then  in  private  grounds  attached  to  these.  Continuity  was 
first  obtained  by  the  custom  instituted  by  Plato  and  Aristotle 
and  continued  by  their  successors,  of  bequeathing  the  head- 


Greek  Education  165 

ship  of  the  school,  their  manuscripts  and  even  their  property 
to  a  designated  disciple.  These  scholarchs,  or  heads  of  the 
schools,  adopted  the  despised  custom  of  the  sophists  of 
charging  fees,  which,  together  with  bequests  from  students, 
resulted  in  building  up  a  permanent  endowment  and  also  in 
giving  defmiteness  to  the  school  as  an  institution. 

To  the  Academy  and  the  Lyceum  were  added  two  others 
which  became  of  even  greater  importance  during  the  centu- 
ries preceding  the  Christian  era.  These  were  the  school  of 
Zeno,  who  taught  in  the  painted  porch  of  one  of  the 
Athenian  temples,  and  whose  disciples  were  hence  called 
Stoics,  and  that  of  Epicurus,  who  taught  in  his  own  private 
grounds.  As  has  been  pointed  out,  the  Aristotelian  school 
through  its  lack  of  independence  and  the  loss  of  its  materials, 
soon  ceased  to  exert  much  influence  upon  the  development 
of  thought  in  Greece.  But  the  other  three,  possessing  even 
a  religious  as  well  as  scholastic  character,  developed  into 
sects.  As  these  formed  the  models  for  many  minor  philo- 
sophical schools,  a  further  explanation  of  their  character  will 
be  helpful  in  forming  a  general  idea  of  the  educational  life  of 
later  Greece. 

The  attendance  upon  some  of  these  schools  was  very  large. 
Theophrastus,  the  successor  to  Aristotle  in  the  headship  of  the 
Lyceum,  is  said  to  have  had  more  than  two  thousand  pupils  at 
one  time.  The  scholarchs  were  aided  by  a  staff  of  assistants 
who  collectively  constituted  the  school.  Lycon,  the  successor 
of  Theophrastus,  bequeathed  the  school  to  his  assistants  col- 
lectively, so  it  became  necessary  to  elect  a  scholarch.  This 
custom  of  election  came  in  time  to  prevail  in  most  of  these 
schools.  In  later  times,  however,  when  these  offices  became 
salaried,  the  custom  obtained  of  establishing  as  scholarchs 
imperial  officers,  appointed  by  the  local  council  (usually 
after  some  form  of  examination),  or  by  the  emperor  himself. 

In  addition  to  the  immediate  group  of  assistants  and 
favorite  pupils,  a  great  number  of  minor  teachers  gathered 


i  66  History  of  Education 

around  these  four  great  schools  of  philosophy.  Besides 
these  teachers  of  official  capacity,  there  were  numerous 
private  tutors  who  prepared  students  for  entrance  to  these 
higher  schools,  helped  the  younger  students  in  their  exer- 
cises, and  directed  them  in  their  reading  and  their  note  work. 
The  philosophical  schools  thus  became  the  center  of  intel- 
lectual activity  in  all  Greece. 

The  character  of  the  work  of  these  schools  became  very 
different  from  that  in  the  time  of  their  founders.  From  the 
very  first,  the  scholarchs  attempted  to  set  forth  the  ideas  of 
the  respective  founders  of  the  schools.  There  was  little 
attempt  to  apply  the  ideas  of  the  great  teachers  in  investiga- 
tion, research,  or  even  in  discussion  of  new  topics.  Their 
work  came  to  be  more  and  more  largely  that  of  apprecia- 
tion and  comment.  Platonism,  Stoicism,  and  Epicureanism 
adapted  themselves  to  phases  of  Roman  ideals  of  life.  But 
not  only  did  the  Lyceum  fail  to  develop  new  doctrine  ;  it  did 
not  succeed  in  keeping  alive  the  old.  For  the  most  part  the 
work  of  these  schools,  though  directed  toward  a  different 
object,  became  as  formal  and  artificial  as  the  work  of  the 
sophists.  In  all  there  grew  up  a  reverence  for  the  written 
word  that  had  great  influence,  literary  and  religious  as  well  as 
educational.  Educationally  this  formalism  was  a  distinct 
decline. 

Along  the  lines  of  these  greater  schools  there  developed 
many  minor  ones,  for  the  most  part  connected  with  some 
religious  cult,  as  well  as  with  an  educational  training.  The 
principles  of  the  new  Greek  education  had  taken  firm  hold, 
as  these  were  but  the  embodiment  of  the  new  ideas.  The 
principle  of  individuality  of  the  sophists  was  now  triumphant 
in  practice,  even  in  the  philosophical  schools ;  for  they  taught 
no  longer  the  universal  systems  of  their  founders,  but  were 
interested  only  in  particular  aspects  of  the  subject  and  em- 
phasized only  some  phases  of  the  ideas  of  their  masters. 

Philosophy  is  no  longer  dominated  by  political  or  ethical 


Greek  Education  167 

interests;  in  time,  not  even  by  scientific  interests.  All  is 
approached  from  the  individualistic  point  of  view.  As  the 
individual  had  previously  freed  himself  from  the  state  and 
from  society,  so  now  he  seeks  the  same  freedom  from  any 
universal  philosophy.  In  the  remnants  of  the  great  philo- 
sophical schools,  as  in  the  many  minor  schools,  the  ideas  of 
the  super-civic  excellence  of  man  and  of  the  superiority  of 
the  intellectual  and  contemplative  above  the  social  and  prac- 
tical life,  find  a  basis.  With  ideals  of  life  which  hold  them 
together  as  no  Greek  political  organization  can  any  more ; 
with  opportunity  for  personal  development  and  for  the  attain- 
ment of  happiness  that  Greek  civic  life  no  longer  offers ;  with 
rites  of  initiation  ;  with  a  specific  training  for  adherents ;  often 
with  secret  doctrines  to  be  carefully  guarded;  with  great,  often 
absolute,  control  over  disciples  —  these  schools  offer  to  the 
Greek  of  this  later  period  a  substitute  for  patriotism,  for  reli- 
gion, for  education,  such  as  was  furnished  in  early  days  by  the 
one  comprehensive  institution,  the  city  state.  And  through 
these  new  institutions,  with  power  of  propagation  and  multi- 
plication, Greek  ideas  are  spread  throughout  the  Mediter- 
ranean world. 

The  University  of  Athens  was  an  outgrowth  of  these 
philosophical  schools,  which  it  in  time  included,  and  of  the 
modified  character  of  the  institutional  organization  of  the  edu- 
cation of  the  ephebes.  During  the  period  of  the  formation  of 
the  philosophical  schools  radical  changes  were  occurring  in 
this  important  stage  of  the  old  education.  We  have  already 
seen  that  as  an  important  phase  of  the  transitional  period  the 
education  of  the  youth  at  this  age  became  more  largely  intel- 
lectual than  physical.  In  time  the  compulsory  provision  was 
reduced  from  two  years  to  one  and  after  the  Macedonian  con- 
quest made  wholly  voluntary.  A  change  of  even  more  radical 
character  that  shortly  followed,  was  the  admission  of  foreign- 
born  students  to  the  ephebic  corps.  Under  the  Roman  regime 


i6S  History  of  Education 

the  foreign  body,  drawn  mostly  from  Rome  and  Italy  but 
also  from  Greek  colonies  and  Oriental  peoples,  became  quite 
as  numerous  as  the  native.  The  year  of  study  now  required 
of  the  youth  under  state  control  was  for  the  most  part  merely 
introductory  to  a  much  longer  period  of  study.  Formal  mili- 
tary exercises  were  kept  up,  at  least  those  in  the  way  of 
celebration  of  ancient  victories  and  the  ceremonial  visits  to 
localities  possessing  great  historic  interest.  The  ephebic 
corps  was  under  the  control  of  a  rector  elected  annually  by 
the  Senate  and  Assembly  of  Athens.  This  officer  had  charge 
of  the  conduct  of  the  boys  and  supervised  their  attendance 
upon  the  lectures  of  the  leading  philosophical  schools.  There 
is  evidence,  however,  that  this  attendance  did  not  extend  to 
the  Epicurean  school,  but  only  to  the  other  three. 

Corresponding  changes  of  importance  occurred  in  the 
philosophical  schools  and  contributed  to  the  establishment 
of  one  unified  institution.  The  military  operations  of 
Philip  II  of  Macedon  (200  B.C.)  and  the  later  devastations 
of  Roman  generals  resulted  in  injury,  if  not  destruction,  of 
the  gymnasia  in  the  suburbs.  These  schools  then  followed 
the  Stoics  into  the  city,  where  they  were  conducted  in  private 
theaters  and  in  public  gymnasia,  especially  those  of  Ptolemy 
and  later  of  Hadrian. 

With  the  growth  of  the  requirement  that  the  ephebes  attend 
these  schools,  a  further  change  occurred.  The  council  or  as- 
sembly of  citizens  came  to  exercise  control  over  the  selection 
of  the  heads  of  these  schools  and  to  support  them  out  of  the  pub- 
lic funds.  Thus  grew  up  the  custom,  so  foreign  to  early  Athe- 
nian ideas,  of  a  state-supported  higher  education.  With  the 
Roman  emperors,  during  the  first  century  of  the  Christian 
era,  definite  support  through  endowment  or  imperial  salary 
was  given  to  numerous  chairs  in  philosophy  and  in  rhetoric. 
From  the  time  that  the  Athenian  public  gave  its  support,  the 
highest  professor  and  later  all  the  professors  in  philosophy 
were  termed  sophists  Evidently  the  term  at  this  time  had 


Greek  Education  169 

no  such  connotation  of  reproach  as  it  contains  in  more  recent 
times.  The  Roman  emperors,  Vespasian  (69-79  A.D.),  who 
began  this  imperial  support,  Hadrian  (117-128  A.D.),  and 
the  Antonines  (138-180  A.D.),  were  especially  interested  in 
making  the  University  of  Athens  the  center  of  learning  for 
the  empire.  While  the  professional  staff  was  probably  but 
ten  or  twelve  in  number,  its  work  was  supplemented  by  that 
of  a  large  number  of  assistants  and  instructors,  paid  from  the 
fees  of  the  students,  and  by  that  of  a  large  number  of  peda- 
gogues who  attended  the  younger  and  wealthier  students. 

Student  life  was  now  prolonged  to  a  period  from  three  or 
four  to  even  seven  years  in  length.  The  ephebic  organiza- 
tion degenerated  into  one  resembling  student  clubs  or  secret 
societies.  During  the  early  Christian  centuries  the  university 
life  presented  many  features  resembling  those  of  university 
life  in  mediaeval  or  modern  times.  Among  these  were  the 
wearing  of  a  distinctive  gown,  the  initiation  into  the  secret 
societies,  and  the  hazing  of  new  students.  So  strong  is  the 
resemblance  even  in  matters  of  organization  and  in  methods 
of  work  that  it  is  argued  by  many  that  the  continuity  of  life, 
or  of  tradition  at  least,  between  the  university  at  Athens  and 
the  early  mediaeval  university,  was  not  broken.  This  view, 
however,  is  not  generally  accepted. 

As  the  center  of  classical  learning  and  hence  of  pagan 
influence,  the  university  aroused  the  opposition  of  the  early 
Christian  emperors  and  was  suppressed  by  Justinian  in  529 
A.D.  Long  before  this,  however,  the  school  had  lost  much  of 
its  influence,  and  it  was  only  a  few  philosophical  teachers, 
chiefly  of  the  Neoplatonic  school,  that  at  the  decree  of  the 
emperor  fled  into  Persia. 

The  University  at  Alexandria  was  one  of  a  number  of 
such  institutions,  such  as  those  at  Rhodes  and  Tarsus,  that 
sprung  up  in  the  East  as  a  result  of  the  spread  of  Greek 
ideas  and  institutions.  Here  under  the  influence  of  the  Ptole- 


170  History  of  Education 

mies  (323-30  B.C.),  who  carried  out  the  idea  of  their  mastei 
Alexander  in  making  this  new  city  the  center  of  influence,  of 
power,  of  culture,  and  of  learning  in  the  East,  there  developed 
an  institution  that  for  many  centuries  outshone  the  parent 
institution  at  Athens.  The  first  of  the  Ptolemies  founded 
a  library  and  instituted  a  search  for  written  documents  such 
as  has  never  been  paralleled  save  at  the  time  of  the  Renais- 
sance. Moreover,  he  founded  and  supported  a  museum,  or 
academy,  where  men  of  letters  and  investigators  resided  at 
royal  expense,  and  constituted  in  connection  with  the  library 
an  institution  so  like  the  modern  university  that  it  has  been 
given  this  name.  The  second  Ptolemy  secured  the  library 
and  the  manuscripts  of  Aristotle,  together  with  many  Jewish, 
Egyptian,  and  other  Oriental  works.  The  third  Ptolemy 
seized  the  original  copies  of  many  of  the  Greek  tragedians 
stored  at  Athens.  The  passion  for  the  collection  of  books 
reached  such  a  stage  that  this  Ptolemy,  taking  advantage  of 
the  wandering  habits  of  Greek  scholars,  required  that  every 
visitor  to  Alexandria  should  leave  behind  him  a  copy  of  any 
manuscript  that  he  might  possess. 

Not  only  did  Alexandria  possess  the  manuscripts  of  Aris- 
totle, but  here  alone,  of  all  these  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing, the  Aristotelian  method  of  investigation  was  employed. 
To  be  sure,  this  was  during  only  one  or  two  brief  periods  and 
then,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  subjects  of  astronomy  and 
geography.  Yet  in  this  brief  space  of  time  much  progress 
was  made  toward  determining  the  measurement  of  the  diame- 
ter and  circumference  of  the  earth,  the  distances  of  the  sun  and 
moon,  and  the  precession  of  the  equinox.  Here  was  formu- 
lated the  Ptolemaic  theory  of  the  universe,  which,  though 
wrong  in  its  fundamental  conceptions,  was  so  near  right  in  its 
methods  that  it  served  with  remarkable  accuracy  as  a  basis 
for  determining  the  motion  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the 
prediction  of  astronomic  events.  Here,  too,  were  carried  on 
most  of  the  labors  and  here  were  made  many  of  the  dis- 


Greek  Education  171 

coveries  of  the  physicist  Archimedes  of  Syracuse.  Here 
Euclid  perfected  that  branch  of  mathematics  which  bears  his 
name.  While  the  greatest  advance  was  made  along  the  lines 
of  mathematics,  yet  some  progress  was  made  in  the  natural 
sciences  as  well.  But  for  the  most  part,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  work  at  Alexandria,  like  that  in  the  Grecian  philo- 
sophical schools,  consisted  in  little  else  than  dreary  comment 
and  exposition  of  what  the  master  or,  more  often  yet,  the 
manuscript  version  of  the  master  said. 

In  the  literary  activities  of  the  university,  possessing 
though  it  did  the  masterpiece  of  Greek  literature,  the  profit- 
less character  of  the  work  was  even  more  pronounced.  Its 
characteristics  were  pedantic  criticism,  detached  and  puerile 
comment,  formal  imitation,  attempts  at  a  style  stilted  and 
designed  for  mere  effect.  This  more  than  anything  else 
marks  the  decadence  of  Greek  style. 

Using  the  word  school  in  the  sense  of  a  somewhat  indefinite 
center  of  several  conflicting  tendencies  in  thought  rather  than 
in  that  sense  applied  to  the  Greek  philosophical  schools,  each 
held  together  by  a  definite  body  of  doctrine,  —  the  Alexan- 
drian philosophical  school  was  of  later  development  than 
either  the  scientific  or  literary  movement  connected  with  the 
Alexandrian  university.  While  Greek  philosophical  thought 
had  always  been  represented  there  and  had  come  in  contact 
with  Oriental  philosophy  and  religion,  it  was  not  until  near  the 
opening  of  the  Christian  era  that  the  development  growing 
out  of  such  contact  became  of  general  interest.  Then  began 
a  movement  headed  by  Philo  of  Judaea,  toward  the  harmoniza- 
tion of  Greek  philosophy  —  especially  the  Platonic  —  and 
the  Hebrew  religion.  The  Scriptures  were  held  to  contain 
all  philosophy,  not  explicitly  but  by  implication.  The  effort 
followed  to  interpret  the  Scriptures,  necessarily  by  allegorical 
method,  so  that  they  would  harmonize,  in  somewhat  the  same 
manner  as  Greek  myth  had  been  made  to  harmonize  with 
later  Greek  philosophical  and  ethical  thought.  Plato  was  held 


172  History  of  Education 

to  be  but  "  Moses  speaking  Attic."  Identifying  the  Platonic 
idea  of  a  divine  sense  for  ideas  with  the  Hebrew  idea  of  inspira- 
tion and  the  idea  of  a  theosophical  revelation  to  the  individual 
thinker,  there  developed  a  type  of  philosophy  —  the  Neopla- 
tonic  —  that  had  great  influence  in  subsequent  centuries. 

In  a  similar  way  Christian  thought  was  early  introduced 
into  Alexandria,  where  its  followers  attempted  a  similar  har- 
monization of  Christianity  with  Greek  philosophy  that  resulted 
in  the  development  of  Gnosticism.  Here  the  early  Christian 
Fathers  were  educated,  and  from  these  general  sources,  that 
is  the  north  African  intellectual  centers,  proceeded  that  for- 
mulation of  Christian  doctrine  that  is  yet  accepted  as  the 
orthodox. 

With  the  fall  of  Alexandria  into  Mahometan  power  (640 
A.D.)  all  this  intellectual  activity  ceased,  or  what  little  was  left 
was  transferred  to  the  Saracens,  to  be  later  revived  in  Saracen 
science  and  philosophy  at  Bagdad  and  Cordova.  The  library 
was  destroyed  by  the  first  caliph,  furnishing,  it  is  said,  fuel 
sufficient  for  four  thousand  public  baths  for  a  period  of  six 
months. 

FUSION  WITH  ROMAN  EDUCATION.  — After  the  Roman 
Conquest  (146  B.C.)  Greek  culture  in  general  was  rapidly 
appropriated  by  the  Roman  conquerors,  and  the  education  of 
the  cosmopolitan  period  extended  its  boundaries  without 
changing  its  character. 

The  elementary  education,  consisting  of  the  grammatical 
study  of  language,  the  secondary  education,  consisting  of  the 
rhetorical  study  of  literature  and  the  development  of  oratorical 
power,  and  at  least  the  institutional  side  of  higher  education, 
consisting  of  philosophical  schools,  universities,  and  libraries 
were  largely  appropriated  by  the  Romans  and  given  further 
systematization.  In  its  later  phase  Roman  education,  when 
"  captive  Greece  took  captive  her  rude  conqueror,"  is  but  one 
aspect  of  the  cosmopolitan  education  of  Greece. 


Greek  Education  173 


REFERENCES 

Biiimmer,  Home  Life  of  the  Ancient  Greeks,  Ch.  III.     (London,  1893.) 
Bosanquet,  The  Education  of  the  Young  in  Plato's  Republic.     (Cambridge, 

1900.) 

Burnet,  Aristotle  on  Education.     (Cambridge,  1903.) 
Capes,  University  Life  in  Ancient  Athens.     (London,  1877.) 
Davidson,  Education  of  the  Greek  People.     (New  York,  1892.) 
Davidson,  Aristotle  and  the  Ancient  Education  Ideals.     (New  York,  1898.) 
Grote,  History  of  Greece,  Chs.  LXVII,  LXVIII.     (London,  1850.) 
Kingsley,  Alexandria  and  Her  Schools.     (London,  1854.) 
Lane,  Elementary  Greek  Education.     (Syracuse,  1895.) 
Laurie,  Historical  Survey  of  Pre-Christian  Education,  pp.  196-300.     (New 

York  and  London,  1895.) 

Mahaffy,  Old  Greek  Education.     (New  York  and  London,  1898.) 
Mahaffy,  Greek  Life  and  Thought.     (London,  1887.) 
Monroe,  Source  Book  in  the  History  of  Education  for  the  Greek  and  Roman 

Period,  Part  I.     (New  York,  1901.) 
Nettleship,  Theory  of  Greek  Education  in  Platans  Republic,  in  Abbott's 

Hellenica.     (London,  1880.) 

Sandys,  History  of  Classical  Scholarship.     (Cambridge,  1903.) 
St.  John,  Manners  and  Customs  of  Ancient  Greece.     (London,  1842.) 
Wilkins,  National  Education  in  Greece.     (London,  1873.) 
Selections  from  Thucydides,  Plutarch,  Aristophanes,  Xenophon,  Plato,  and 

Aristotle.     (Given  in  Source  Book.) 


TOPICAL  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

1.  In  what  respects  did  the  city  state,  through  its  demands  upon  its 
citizens,  furnish  an  education  ?     (See  De  Coulanges,  The  Ancient  City,  and 
Fowler.  City  State  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.) 

2.  What  educational  ideals  and  practices  are  given  by  implication  or  by 
direct  delineation  in  the  following  passages  in  the  Iliad:  I,  52-302 ;  II,  35- 
380,  445-482;  IX,  50-180;  X,  335-579;  XI,  617-809;  XVIII,  245-318; 
XIX,  40-275  ? 

3.  To  what  extent  are  the  ideals  of  old  Greek  education  expressed  in 
the  oration  of  Pericles,  given  by  Thucydides?     (See  Source  Book,  pp.  24- 
31.)     To  what  extent  are  the  ideals  given  therein  expressions  of  the  new? 

4.  What  further  connection  between  the  political  and  social  changes  in 
Greek  life  and  the  new  education  can  be  discovered  in  the  more  detailed 
account  given  by  Grote,  Curtius,  Thirlwell,  Zeller,  Holm,  etc  ? 


1 74  History  of  Education 

5.  In  what  respects  are  the  problems  of  education  in  the  transition  period 
similar  to  those  of  the  present  time? 

6.  What  concrete  changes  in  education  characteristic  of  the  transitional 
period  are  indicated  in  The  Clouds  of  Aristophanes? 

7.  In  what  respects  are  the  activities  and  the  ideals  of  the  sophists 
similar  to  those  of  present-day  educators? 

8.  To  what  extent  does    Plato's  idealistic  solution  of  the  educational 
problem  offer  suggestion  concerning  the  formulation  of  the  educational  aim 
at  the  present  time?     Educational  method?     Educational  organization? 

9.  What  similarity  is  there  between  the  approach  to  the  problems  of 
education  made  by  Plato  in  The  Laws  (Bk.  II,  pp.  653-654),  and  the 
approach  made  by  students  in  the  present  time? 

10.  To  what  extent  are  Aristotle's  arguments  concerning  the  fundamental 
importance  of  education  to  society,  or  the  state,  valid  at  the  present  time  ? 

n.  How  far  does  Aristotle's  solution  of  the  ethical  problem  of  the  con- 
flict between  the  individual  and  social  welfare  offer  a  solution  of  the  edu- 
cational problem  of  the  present? 

12.  What  are  the  arguments  given  by  the  educational   theorists  that 
explain  the  peculiar  use  made  by  the  Greeks  of  music  in  education?    Of 
gymnastics? 

13.  How  far  was  the  Greek  method  in  education  superior  to  the  method 
of  the  present  time? 

14.  How  far  is  the  Socratic  method  of  instruction  valid? 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SURVEY  OF  ROMAN  AND  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION 


POETS, 

PHILOSOPHERS, 

WRITINGS 

POLITICAL  EVENTS 

DRAMATISTS, 

MORALISTS, 

POSSESSING 

EDUCATIONAL 

AND  PERSONAGES 

HISTORIANS, 

CHURCH 

EDUCATIONAL 

EVENTS 

ETC. 

FATHERS,  ETC. 

SIGNIFICANCE 

Traditional  founding 

Laws  of  Twelve 

of  city    .     .     .753 

Tables    .     .     .451 

Kings      .     .  753-509 

First  mention  of 

Decemvirs     .     .  451 

Ludus    .    .    .  449 

Censors     .     .     .  444 

Italian  Wars  343-272 

300  B.C. 

Andronicus 

Latinized 

Andronicus  reaches 

Punic  Wars    264-146 

c,  284  c.  204 

Odyssey  .  c.  250 

Rome     .    .     .  272 

Death  of  Cato    .  148 

S'aevius 

Plautus, 

Spurius  Carvilius 

Conquest  of 

c.  264-194 

Bacchides      189 

founds  school  .  260 

Greece  .     .     .146 

Plautus    254-184 

Cato,  de  Agricul- 

First  Latin  play 

Reforms  of  the 

Ennius  .   239-169 

tura,  earliest 

at  Rome      .     .  240 

Gracchi  .     132  121 

Dato      .  234-148 

work  in  Latin 

Paulus  /Kmilius 

Social  War     .    91-89 

Terence   189-159 

prose  .  c.  175-150 

brings  Greek 

War  of  Marius  and 

Lucretius    97-53 

Varro, 

library  to  Rome  167 

Sulla     .     .     89-79 

/arro    .     116-27 

Disciplinaru  m 

Crates  est.  first  gram. 

First  Triumvirate  59 

licero  .     106-53 

libri  novem 

school  and  teaches 

Caesar's 

Nepos   .      99-54 

f-43 

Greek     .     .     .167 

conquests  .     58-52 

Sallust  .      86-34 

Cicero, 

Greek  rhetoricians 

de  Oratore    .  55 

expelled      .     .  161 

First  private 

library    .     .    c.  150 

Censors  expel  Latin 

rhetoricians     .     92 

aB.C. 

_aesar   .     100-44 

Seneca 

Horace,  Odes  and 

First  public 

nspiracy  of 
Catiline.     .     .     52 

Virgil    .       70-19 
Horace.     .   68  8 

54  B.C.-39  A.D. 
Epictetus 

Satires  35-8  B.C. 
Tacitus, 

library    ...     39 
Palatine  Library 

War  of  Cxsar  and 

Sallust  .       86  34 

fl.  c.  90  A.D. 

de  Oratoribus 

founded  ...     28 

Pompey     .     49-48 

Ovid 

Marcus  Aurelius 

79  A.D. 

First  Imperial 

Death  of  Cxsar  .  44 

43  B.C.-lS  A.D. 

121-180 

Quintilian, 

support  of 

Second 

Livy 

Tertullian 

de  Oratoria    96 

schools     c.  75  A.D. 

Triumvirate      .  43 

59  B  c.-i8  A.D. 

c.  150-230 

Martial, 

Antoninus  Pius 

Reign  of  Augustus 

Pliny,  the 

Clement  of 

Epigrams  90-99 

subsidizes  educa- 

31 B  C.-I4  A.D. 

Elder        23-79 

Alexandria 

Pliny, 

tion  in  the 

Tiberius  r.  14-37  A'D- 

Quintilian 

c,  iy3-c.  215 

Epistles.  97-108 

Provinces    138-161 

Nero    .     .     r.  54  68 

35  A.D.  -95 

Dyprian 

Juvenal, 

Caracalla  destroys 

Vespasian      r.  69-79 

Tacitus 

c.  200-255 

Satires    100-126 

foundation  of 

Trajan       .    r.  98-117 

C.  55  A.D.-I20 

Drigen  .   185-254 

Suetonius,  Lives 

Alexandrian 

Hadrian     r.  117  138 

Plutarch    46-125 

Plotinus  204-270 

of  Rhetoricians 

University  .     .  217 

Antonines  r.  138-180 

Pliny,  the 

Porphyry 

C.  121 

Severus  appoints 

Public  sale  of 

Younger 

233-*-  .  301 

Marcus  Aurelius, 

teachers  of 

Empire  .     .     .  193 

61-105 

Meditations 

mathematics  at 

Roman  citizenship 

Juvenal 

c.  161 

Rome   .     .         218 

conferred  on  all  free 

c.  55-140 

Tertullian,  Pre- 

Constantine extends 

provincials  .     .  212 

Suetonius 

scription  Against 

privileges  of 

Absolute  monarchy 

c,  75-160 

Heresies 

teachers 

of  Diocletian  284-305 

Clement,  The 

321,  326,  333 

Constantine 

Educator, 

r.  306-337 

Stromata,  etc. 

313  A.D. 

Eusebius 

Basil     .  331-374 

Jerome,  Letters, 

Julian  licenses 

Toleration  of 

265-340 

Ambrose  340-397 

to  Ltfta,  to 

teachers  and 

Christianity    .  313 
Council  of  Nicxa  325 

Ausonius 
e.  310-c.  393 

Gregory  of 
Nyssa 

Gaudentius, 
etc. 

forbids  Christians 
teaching      .     .  361 

Julian  the 

Symmachus 

c-  343-^-  394 

Donatus, 

Gratian  orders 

Apostate     361-363 

<••  345-405 

Jerome  .  331-420 

Grammar 

payment  of 

Goths  invade 

Apollonius 

Chrysostom 

c.  400 

teachers'  salarie 

Empire  .     .     .  376 

Sidonius 

344-404 

Augustine, 

in  provincial 

Final  div.  of  Emp.  395 
Exposure  of  infants 
prohibited  .     .  374 

c.  430-480 
Martianus 
Capclla 

Augustine 
354-43° 

Confessions 
Capella, 
Marriage  of 

capitals  and 
establishes 
schedule  of 

Last  Roman 

fl.  c.  500 

Philology  and 

salaries  .     .     .  376 

triumph      .     .  404 

Mercury 

Death  of 

Alaric  sacks 

Priscian, 

Hypatia      .    .  4x5 

Rome  .     .     .     410 

Grammar 

All  teachers  to  be 

Battle  of  Chalons  451 

t.yx> 

licensed  .     .     .  425 

Empire  combined 

Syriac  commentaries 

with  the  East    476 

on  Aristotle     .  450 

CHAPTER   IV 

THE  ROMANS.    EDUCATION   AS  TRAINING   FOR  PRAC- 
TICAL LIFE 

GENERAL  CHARACTER  OF  ROMAN  EDUCATION.  Domi- 
nant Institutions  and  the  Genius  of  the  People.  —  In  many 
respects  the  genius  of  the  Roman  people  was  antipodal,  in 
some  respects  complementary,  to  that  of  the  Greeks.  Domi- 
nated by  the  same  institution,  the  city  state,  upon  which 
their  civilization,  like  that  of  the  Greeks,  was  based,  they  took 
a  radically  different  course  of  development.  It  is  in  the 
results  of  this  course  rather  than  in  its  causes,  that  we  are 
here  interested. 

The  Roman  was  not  one  who  found  satisfaction  in  the 
attainment  for  its  own  sake  to  a  subjective  state,  a  state  of 
happiness,  a  life  of  contemplation,  of  aesthetic  enjoyment,  of 
intellectual  activity.  More  characteristic  of  his  genius  was 
the  striving  for  some  external  object ;  the  accomplishment  of 
some  concrete  purpose  lying  outside  of  his  own  thought  life, 
of  some  form  of  excellence  or  achievement  of  concrete,  even 
of  material,  value  to  his  fellows,  and  similarly  striven  for 
by  them. 

Practical  Character  of  the  Roman  Genius. — The  genius 
of  the  Romans  was,  in  a  word,  wholly  a  practical  one,  the 
great  merit  of  which  was  that  it  accomplished  concrete  results 
by  adapting  means  to  ends.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Greek 
genius,  as  will  be  recognized  through  a  consideration  of  the 
fullest  development  of  the  Greek  mind  in  their  philosophers, 
possessed  a  peculiar  power  of  defining  proper  aims  in  life, 

176 


The  Romans  177 

of  determining  the  principles  underlying  conduct,  of  attaining 
to  the  ultimate  analysis  of  reality.  At  least  these  are  the 
things  that  the  Greeks  sought  for ;  and  we  recognize  that  the 
Greeks  denned  for  all  time  those  things,  that  have  been  by 
all  ages  deemed  the  most  worthy  objects  of  the  present  life, — • 
aesthetic  enjoyment,  intellectual  power,  moral  personality, 
political  freedom,  social  excellence,  —  called  culture.  The 
work  of  the  Romans  was  the  practical  one  of  furnishing  the 
means,  the  institutions,  or  the  machinery  for  realizing  these 
ideals.  Hence  they  have  ever  been  looked  upon  as  a  utilita- 
rian people.  They  borrowed  the  Greek  idea  of  a  confederate 
government  and  developed  it  into  a  universal  empire  ;  they 
borrowed  the  Greek  idea  of  law  and  developed  it  into  a  sys- 
tem of  legal  principles  that  even  yet  guides  modern  nations 
in  their  complicated  life;  they  adopted  the  religion  of  a 
despised  sect  of  a  despised  race  and  made  of  it  the  religion 
of  the  civilized  world,  the  one  by  which  they  subdued  the 
savage  world.  In  all  of  these  respects  and  in  a  multitude  of 
less  important  ways,  the  Romans  showed  their  genius  in 
elaborating  the  institutional  organization  necessary  to  make 
effective  the  aspirations  of  other  people.  If  the  ideals  of 
modern  life  are  largely  drawn  from  Greek  and  Hebrew 
sources,  its  institutions  are  even  more  thoroughly  Roman  in 
their  origin  and  nature. 

Roman  Standard  of  Judgment.  — This  general  character- 
istic suggests  a  further  one.  Contrasted  with  the  Greek 
tendency  to  measure  all  things  by  the  standard  of  reasonable- 
ness, or  harmony,  or  proportion,  we  have  the  Roman  ten- 
dency to  judge  ever  by  the  usefulness,  the  effectiveness  of  a 
thing.  The  Greek  estimate  was  the  intellectual  or  aesthetic 
one  resulting  from  the  consideration  of  ultimate  aims  or 
values;  the  Roman  estimate  was  the  utilitarian  one  drawn 
from  a  consideration  of  the  serviceableness  of  a  thing  as 
judged  by  its  relation  to  institutional  life.  For  this  reason 
the  Romans  tended  to  look  upon  the  Greeks  as  a  visionary, 


178  History  of  Education 

unpractical  people,  while  the  Greeks  considered  the  Romans 
somewhat  as  sordid  barbarians,  with  force  of  character  and 
military  strength,  but  with  no  appreciation  of  the  higher 
aspects  of  life  and  of  culture.  The  Greeks  were  imaginative, 
impulsive  in  their  actions,  and  joyous  in  their  view  of  life ; 
the  Romans  were  matter  of  fact  in  their  estimate  of  things, 
grave  and  sedate  in  their  bearing,  severe  in  their  standards 
of  conduct,  and  superior  to  the  Greeks  in  dignity  and  moral 
force.  "The  Greeks  never  lost  their  youth;  the  Romans 
were  always  men." 

Influence  of  Religion  on  Education.  —  This  contrast  be- 
tween the  characters  of  the  two  peoples  is  well  illustrated 
in  the  diverse  influences  of  religion  upon  their  education. 
While  the  Romans  possessed  household  gods  of  the  same 
character  as  those  of  the  Greeks,  these  gods,  representing 
general  forces,  were  quite  different  until  they  came  to  be 
modified  by  Greek  ideas.  The  Roman  gods  of  the  earlier 
period  were  impersonal  representations  of  natural  forces 
and  social  activities.  They  were  mysterious  beings  with- 
out human  power  or  feelings,  who  influenced  human  life 
without  sympathy  with  its  hopes  or  joys  or  fears  as  with 
the  Greeks.  There  was  no  Olympus,  no  marriage,  no  off- 
spring ;  they  were  merely  a  crowd  of  oppressive  beings 
of  mysterious  character,  constantly  interfering  with  human 
affairs,  yet  removed  from  the  circle  of  sympathy  with  them. 
As  a  result  there  existed  a  constant  necessity  for  placating 
and  appeasing  them,  not  so  much  through  joyous  activities, 
as  with  the  Greeks,  as  through  an  elaborate  ceremonial  that 
was  often  but  little  removed  from  the  incantations  of  primi- 
tive man.  In  the  course  of  historical  development,  especially 
upon  the  identification  of  the  Roman  gods  with  the  person- 
ality of  the  Greek  gods,  this  severity  was  much  mitigated. 
Yet  with  the  Romans  religion  always  remained  a  practical 
means  for  getting  on  in  the  world,  —  a  means  for  regulating 
everyday  life,  —  and  hence  was  more  closely  connected  with 


The  Romans  170 

political  and  business  affairs  than  with  the  Greeks.  Every- 
thing was  sacred,  everything  was  to  be  done  in  an  established 
way,  every  act  had  its  appropriate  religious  ceremony.  There 
was  a  god  of  fallowing,  of  plowing,  of  sowing,  of  covering  the 
grain  and  of  harrowing ;  a  god  of  the  grain  in  germination,  a 
god  of  grain  in  the  joint,  a  god  of  the  grain  in  the  sheath,  and 
so  on  for  every  phase  of  the  life  of  the  husbandman  and  of 
every  other  interest  or  activity  in  life.  Religion  was  no 
exalted  faith,  no  lofty  aspiration  after  virtue,  no  idealization 
of  the  beautiful,  no  attempt  to  reach  the  life  of  intellectual 
activity  or  of  contemplation  or  of  highest  religious  and 
ethical  significance.  Religion  had  little  influence  of  an 
intellectual  and  aesthetic  character  upon  the  life  of  the  people 
and  consequently  upon  their  education.  On  the  other  hand, 
while  full  of  superstition,  it  had  a  distinct  ethical  influence 
foreign  to  that  of  the  Greeks ;  it  consecrated  love  of  country, 
hallowed  the  family  relation,  preserved  the  sanctity  of  the 
oath,  developed  the  sense  of  duty  —  all  of  which  things  the 
Greek  religion  did  not  do.  These  influences  on  life  con- 
stituted the  contribution  of  Roman  religion  to  Roman  educa- 
tion, for  the  development  of  these  traits  was  the  practical  aim 
of  their  education. 

Contributions  of  Rome  to  Civilization.  —  The  permanent 
contributions  of  the  Romans  to  civilization  were,  then,  of 
two  great  types :  Through  their  development  and  organiza- 
tion of  law  they  furnished  that  institutional  organization  of 
life  that  serves  to  a  large  extent  as  the  basis  of  modern 
social  life;  through  their  influence  on  the  practical  virtues, 
chiefly  through  the  law  and  the  state,  but  also  later  through 
the  adaptation  of  the  Stoic  philosophy  and  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  Christian  religion,  they  contributed  to  the  exalta- 
tion of  the  moral  conception  of  life.  Thus  it  follows 
that  they  have  exerted  much  less  of  permanent  influence  on 
education,  in  the  narrower  sense,  than  have  the  Greeks.  No 
science,  no  speculative  philosophy,  no  contribution  to  the 


180  History  of  Education 

abstract  intellectual  or  aesthetic  elements  in  education  followed 
from  their  conception  of  life  and  religion.  Their  influence 
was  wholly  the  practical  one  of  adaptation  and  organization. 

Roman  Ideal  of  Education  shown  in  their  Conception  of 
Rights  and  Duties.  —  The  rights  of  the  Roman  citizen  — 
including  by  the  time  of  the  Antonines,  the  end  of  the 
second  century  A.D.,  practically  all  free  citizens  of  the  prov- 
inces —  were  five  in  number  and  all  clearly  denned  by 
law.  These  were  :  the  right  of  the  father  over  his  chil- 
dren (patria  potestas};  the  right  of  the  husband  over  his 
wife  (mantis);  the  right  of  the  master  over  his  slaves  (pott's- 
tas  dominica)\  the  right  of  a  freeman  over  another  that  the 
law  gave  him  through  contract  or  through  forfeiture  (mantis 
capere) ;  and  the  right  over  property  (dominhim).  The  free- 
man received  these  rights  by  birth,  for  by  descent  each  Roman 
was  a  freeman,  a  citizen,  and  a  member  of  a  family.  But 
after  the  earlier  centuries  these  rights  could  also  be  acquired 
either  by  naturalization  or  adoption  or  by  enfranchisement. 

Rights  and  Duties  of  a  FatJier. — The  right  of  the  father 
was  the  strongest,  the  most  characteristic,  and  the  most 
important  right  of  a  Roman.  When  the  child,  soon  after 
birth,  was  laid  at  the  feet  of  its  father,  as  a  religious  cere- 
mony, it  could  either  be  lifted  up  by  him  and  thus  accepted 
into  the  family ;  or,  on  account  of  deformity,  or  poverty,  or 
other  cause,  it  could  be  left  to  be  placed  at  some  crossroads 
to  die  or  to  be  carried  into  slavery.  This  custom  was  not  sub- 
ject to  the  abuse  prevalent  in  Greece ;  but,  since  this  was  a 
religious  ceremony,  the  Roman  father  was  presumed  to  have, 
and  usually  did  have,  some  good  reason  for  rejecting  a 
child  ;  this  custom,  which  appears  so  monstrous  to  modern 
ideas,  was  to  them  a  most  practical  way  of  serving  the  state 
by  eliminating  all  unworthy  citizens  and  of  preserving  the 
stability  and  the  purity  of  the  family.  This  right  over  his 
child  the  father  did  not  lose  even  when  the  son  became  a 
citizen,  a  soldier,  and  a  property  holder  in  his  own  right,  and 


The  Romans  181 

even  an  officer  of  the  government.  Nor  did  he  lose  his  right 
over  his  daughter  at  her  marriage  unless  his  consent  to  the 
relinquishment  of  that  right  was  given  in  a  special  religious 
ceremony  transferring  her  into  the  other  family.  This  power 
of  life  and  death,  the  right  of  executing  all  law  upon  his 
own  children,  resided  in  the  father  until  late  in  imperial 
times;  though  then  the  few  recorded  instances  of  its  exer- 
cise were  occasions  for  popular  tumults.  Long  before  this 
time,  this  right,  together  with  the  accompanying  one  of  the 
sale  of  a  child,  was  modified  by  legal  restriction  in  the 
form  of  corresponding  duties. 

In  truth  this  union  of  obligations  with  rights  was  a  principle 
fundamental  to  Roman  thought,  and  by  them  made  funda- 
mental to  all  modern  law.  Every  right  has  its  correspond- 
ing obligation.  The  Greek's  highest  conception  of  life  was 
in  terms  of  virtue,  of  happiness, — in  some  form  of  personal 
satisfaction;  the  Roman's  highest  conception  was  given 
in  some  form  of  duty  with  its  corresponding  right ;  life  in 
terms  of  law  or  principle.  One  was  essentially  the  aesthetic 
interpretation  of  life ;  the  other  was  essentially  a  moral  view 
of  life. 

Hence  these  great  powers  of  the  father  were  exercised  for 
the  good  of  the  state  and  the  good  done  the  family  by  the  per- 
formance of  his  duties  respecting  them ;  for  any  negligence 
of  these  duties  there  was  meted  out  a  corresponding  punish- 
ment equally  well  specified  in  their  law.  Though  the  boy,  at 
sixteen,  assumed  the  toga  of  citizenship,  served  in  the  army 
(in  the  republican  days),  voted  in  the  comitia,  held  office  and 
property,  yet  the  power  of  the  father  remained  until  dissolved 
by  death. 

Religious  and  Economic  Duties.  —  As  the  head  of  a  family 
and  the  possessor  of  goods,  the  father  was  a  priest  with  reli- 
gious duties  to  perform.  All  the  household  activities,  all 
relationships  and  special  occasions,  such  as  birthdays,  fes- 
tal days,  and  marriages,  were  rendered  sacred  by  religious 


182  History  of  Education 

ceremonials.  Then,  too,  for  the  family  he  must  participate 
in  public  religious  worship.  Each  day  had  its  minute  duties 
of  a  religious  kind  prescribed  by  law  or  by  custom.  More- 
over, as  the  head  of  a  household  and  the  holder  of  property, 
he  had  many  economic  duties  to  perform  far  more  important 
and  burdensome  than  the  similar  interests  of  the  Greeks. 
Each  Roman  in  the  olden  days  was  a  farmer,  and  the  manage- 
ment of  the  estate  as  well  as  the  actual  work  upon  it  formed 
a  part  of  his  pride  in  citizenship.  So  fundamental  was  this 
activity  that  when  the  Romans  came  to  develop  the  conception 
and  process  of  education,  they  gave  to  it  the  term  indicative 
of  this  process,  and  cultura,  culture,  came  to  signify  in  the 
intellectual  and  spiritual  life  what  agriculture,  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  fields,  meant  for  them  in  their  practical  life.  The 
Romans  were  not,  as  the  Greeks,  averse  to  the  industrial  life. 
Even  in  imperial  days,  the  boy  of  sixteen,  if  of  well-to-do  par- 
ents, prepared  for  military  or  civil  service ;  the  boy  of  the 
poorer  family  entered  into  a  trade  with  no  detriment  to  his 
citizenship.  And  when  yet  later  the  numerous  conquests 
crowded  the  ranks  of  all  industrial  and  commercial  occupa- 
tions with  the  slaves  of  the  wealthier  class,  the  empire  made 
its  distribution  of  food  supplies  to  support  the  poorer  citizens 
and  to  prevent  the  depletion  if  not  extinction  of  the  free 
citizen  class.  Very  early  in  the  days  of  the  republic  the 
importance  of  this  business  training  along  with  the  agricul- 
tural appears,  and  the  keeping  of  accounts  becomes  one  of 
the  earliest  elements  in  their  schooling. 

Political  Duties.  —  So,  the  young  man  as  well  as  the  head 
^f  the  family  had  specific  duties  of  citizenship.  In  the  days 
of  the  republic  he  sat  in  some  of  the  various  comitiae  or 
public  bodies.  He  had  to  take  legal  care  of  his  property, 
make  contracts,  draw  his  will  for  presentation  to  one  of  these 
bodies,  or  later  take  part  in  some  portion  of  the  civil  service. 
As  a  soldier,  at  all  periods  until  the  formation  of  the  mer 
cenary  army,  he  had  his  military  duties  to  perform. 


The  Romans  183 

Now  all  of  these  duties  demanded  of  the  father  and  of  the 
citizen,  in  return  for  the  great  privileges  conferred  upon 
them,  a  definite  training  through  the  years  of  boyhood  that 
the  appropriate  abilities  or  virtues  might  be  developed. 
Though  this  training  was  only  to  a  slight  extent,  even  in  any 
historic  period,  furnished  by  the  school,  yet  a  definite  educa- 
tion of  positive  character  and  great  value  was  furnished  by 
the  home. 

Elements  in  this  Educational  Ideal.  —  In  the  performance 
of  these  duties  certain  definite  virtues  or  moral  characteristics 
were  demanded.  The  moral  ideals  of  life  formulated  by 
the  Romans  do  not  present  the  development  of  the  Greek 
ideal,  for  they  do  not  contain  the  same  idealistic  elements. 
The  virtues  demanded  were  all  of  an  extremely  practical 
character,  and  they  were  formulated  from  an  actual  living 
type.  Manhood,  as  exemplified  in  living  men  or  in  well- 
known  historical  personages,  furnished  the  standards  which 
the  youth  was  expected  to  approximate.  While  the  charac- 
teristics of  these  types  furnished  no  exalted  ideal,  they  at 
least  were  models  permitting  worthy  imitation  and  exemplify- 
ing the  practical  virtues  of  a  vigorous,  successful  people. 
These  virtues  appeared  in  the  personal  traits  of  the  heroes 
exalted  in  the  national  legends  and  the  poems  of  the  later 
literature  of  the  people. 

Foremost  of  these  virtues  was  that  of  piety,  the  obedience 
to  the  commands  of  the  gods  and  of  parents.  Piety  contained 
the  religious  idea  of  reverence  and  of  filial  regard  for  pa- 
rental control.  Together  with  modesty  it  approximated  the 
Greek  idea  of  reverence,  the  balance  or  harmony  of  conduct, 
though  this  ideal  never  received  a  formulation  springing 
from  an  aesthetic  appreciation  of  conduct  as  it  did  with  the 
Greeks.  Manliness,  or  firmness,  or  what  we  term  character 
(constantid)  was  a  virtue  valued  by  the  Romans  and  exem- 
plified in  their  lives  more  than  in  that  of  any  other  ancient 
people,  though  it  hardly  appeared  in  the  Greek  ideal  of  life 


184  History  of  Education 

As  a  result  of  this  the  other  virtue  of  bravery  or  courage  had 
much  more  of  the  idea  of  fortitude  than  did  the  correspond 
ing  Greek  ideal.  Since  "  Rome  must  never  conclude  a  peace 
save  as  victor ;  "  so  no  Roman  must  ever  voluntarily  quit  a 
strife  before  having  vanquished.  There  was  none  of  the 
fear  of  excess  that  characterized  the  Greek ;  the  bravery  of 
the  Roman  was  buttressed  by  their  idea  of  fortitude  and  of 
obedience,  not  qualified  by  any  conception  of  temperance 
or  of  moderation  in  the  performance  of  any  activity,  much 
less  in  that  of  physical  bravery  and  of  devotion  to  the  state. 
To  these  virtues  were  added  two  more  homely  ones,  charac- 
teristic of  a  practical  people  only  and  growing  out  of  a  life  of 
industrial  activity,  where  actual  participation  in  the  toil  of  life 
was  considered  a  duty  and  not  a  disgrace.  These  were  pru- 
dence, especially  in  the  management  of  one's  business  affairs, 
and  honesty  or  fair  dealing  in  all  economic  relations.  Ear- 
nestness (gravitas\  graveness,  sedateness,  sobriety  in  conduct, 
a  dignity  of  bearing  were  substituted  for  the  Greek  idea  of 
gracefulness.  If  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  the  individ- 
ual, all  were  summed  up  in  the  ideal  of  duty  ;  if  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  state,  in  the  ideal  of  justice.  Though  at 
the  beginning  the  Greek  ideal  of  virtue  was  largely  that  of 
devotion  to  the  state,  the  ideal  of  physical  bravery  soon 
ceased  to  be  its  chief  element;  their  moral  ideal  was  ever 
formulated  in  some  form  of  virtue,  in  terms  of  personal  sat- 
isfaction. In  time  their  ideal  became  formulated  in  terms 
of  happiness  or  in  terms  of  intellectual  activity.  The  Roman 
ideal,  on  the  other  hand,  ever  continued  to  keep  as  its  basal 
element  the  idea  of  bravery  or  of  virtue  in  the  sense  of  devo- 
tion to  the  state.  Virtue,  then,  in  terms  of  duty,  as  stated 
in  principles  or  in  law,  remained  the  Roman  conception  of 
life.  Life  in  terms  of  virtue  is  the  idealistic  formulation  of 
life ;  life  in  terms  of  duty  is  the  moral  conception  of  life  as 
formulated  by  the  practical  man. 
The  elaboration  of  the  details  of  this  conception  of  life  in 


The  Romans  185 

terms  of  rights  and  duties  was  the  great  task  of  the  Romans 
and  their  greatest  contribution  to  civilization.  This  balance 
between  rights  and  duties  is  preserved  by  the  state  and 
constitutes  justice.  Hence  it  is  that  the  entire  obligations  of 
man,  as  consisting  in  the  performance  of  his  duties  and  the 
maintenance  of  his  rights  could  be  summed  up  in  his  rela- 
tionship to  the  state,  by  which  means  justice  among  all  men 
would  be  maintained. 

The  Practical  Education.  —  With  a  people  to  whom  religion 
was  merely  a  means  for  expediting  the  practical  affairs  of 
life,  education  could  not  be  more  idealistic.  As  religion 
never  inspired  to  any  exalted  view  of  life,  so  education  never 
became  more  than  a  preparation  for  life's  practical  duties. 
Just  as  mildew  was  kept  from  the  grain,  or  rust  and  accident 
from  the  hinges  of  the  door  by  the  worship  of  appropriate 
gods  or  spirits,  so  each  specific  duty  on  the  farm,  —  its  plow- 
ing, reaping,  preparing  the  grain,  —  each  duty  in  the  house- 
hold, each  exercise  in  the  martial  camp  or  field,  had  its 
specific  training,  and  education  was  but  the  sum  of  such  prepa- 
rations for  the  practical  duties  of  life. 

The  Home  as  the  Center  of  Education.  —  In  a  conception  of 
education  that  for  the  most  part  has  to  do  with  the  formation 
of  moral  character,  schools  can  have  but  a  minor  place  as  an 
educational  means.  And  so  it  was  at  Rome.  Their  place 
was  taken__by  other  institutions,  above  all  others,  the  home. 
The  whole  tendency  of  Greek  life  was  to  minimize  the  im- 
portance of  home  Hfe.  Even  in  the  highest  expression  of 
their  ethical  and  social  thought,  in  the  educational  system  of 
Plato,  the  home  was  eliminated.  It  was  quite  the  contrary 
at  Rome :  there  the  whole  tendency  was  to  magnify  its  im- 
portance. The  peculiar  power  of  the  father  exalted  his 
functions  and  made  the  family  the  social  unit,  even  in  many 
legal  respects.  The  moral  importance  of  the  home,  as  well 
as  its  legal  and  social  importance,  was  emphasized.  The 
father  was  responsible  for  the  moral  and  physical  training  of 


1 86 


History  of  Education 


the  boy.  The  mother  held  a  position  far  superior  to  the 
place  of  women  in  Greece.  Within  the  home  she  was  digni- 
fied with  a  position  of  independence  and  responsibility.  She 
was  more  the  companion  of  her  husband  socially  and  more 
his  partner  in  his  management  of  the  home  than  in  Greece. 
She  herself  reared  and  cared  for  her  own  children  instead  of 
turning  them  over  to  a  nurse.  When-somewhat  grown  up 
the  boy  became  the  companion  of  his  father  in  place  of  being 
turned  over  to  a  slave  or  a  pedagogue,  as  with  the  Greeks. 
When  the  Greek  influence  became  powerful,  though  peda- 
gogues were,  to  be  sure,  introduced,  it  was  only  by  the 
wealthier  classes  and  then  only  as  an  adopted  custom  —  one 


LIFE  OF  A  ROMAN  BOY.    FROM  A  SARCOPHAGUS. 

that  never  became  national  in  character.     Speaking  of  his 
own  education,  the  poet  Horace  (born  65  B.C.)  says:  — 

"  If  my  life  is  pure  and  innocent  and  my  friends  love  me, 
I  owe  it  all  to  my  father ;  he,  though  not  rich,  for  his  farm 
was  a  poor  one,  would  not  send  me  to  the  school  of  Flaviu? 
(at  Venusia),  to  which  the  first  youths  of  the  town,  the  son;* 
of  centurions,  the  great  men  there,  used  to  go,  with  thei? 
bags  and  their  slates  on  their  left  arm,  taking  the  teacher'i 
fee  on  the  Ides  of  eight  months  in  the  year;  but  he  had  the 
spirit  to  take  me,  when  a  boy,  to  Rome,  there  to  learn  the 
liberal  arts  which  any  knight  or  senator  would  have  his  own 
sons  taught.  .  .  .  He  himself  was  ever  present,  a  guardian 
incorruptible,  at  all  my  studies." 

This  passage  forms  one  of  the  few  descriptions  of  schoo* 
life — when  schools  are  developed  —  that  is  to  be  found  iu 


The  Romans  187 

.arj  literature ;  but  the  points  to  be  noticed  here  are  the 
great  personal  interest  of  the  father  in  the  education  of  his 
son  and  the  prevailing  moral  content  of  that  education. 

Almost  two  centuries  later,  when  the  corrupting  influences 
that  had  entered  into  the  cosmopolitan  life  of  Rome  were  in 
full  swing,  in  his  satire  (XIV)  upon  the  vices  of  the  Roman 
people,  Juvenal  formulates  the  ever  memorable  principle  not 
only  of  Roman  but  of  all  education, — "The  greatest  reverence 
Is  due  the  child."  This  responsibility  of  the  father  for  the 
•education  of  his  child,  at  least  in  the  formation  of  his  moral 
character,  was  not  only  of  importance  to  the  child  but  it  also 
reacted  upon  the  father.  The  stability  and  the  perpetuation 
of  these  virtues,  of  a  sturdy,  rugged  character  among  the 
ranks~of  the  common  people  long  after  the  majority  of  the 
families  in  the  upper  class,  especially  in  the  imperial  court 
circles,  had  fallen  into  most  vicious  debauchery,  was  quite 
largely  due  to  this  restraining  influence  of  the  home  and  to 
the  father's  responsibility  for  the  moral  character  of  the  boy. 
The  continuation  of  the  quotation  from  Juvenal  indicates  this: 
"  If  you  are  contemplating  a  disgraceful  act,  despise  not  your 
child's  tender  years,  but  let  your  infant  son  act  as  a  check 
upon  your  purpose  of  sinning." 

In  a  similar  way  the  influence  of  the  mother  was  greater, 
as  the  position  of  woman  in  general  was  higher,  at  Rome  than 
that  among  any  other  ancient  people.  This  greater  scope  to 
her  influence  was  not  through  her  participation  in  public  life, 
hence  there  is  little  direct  mention  of  it ;  but  it  was  through 
this  higher  authority  and  freedom  in  the  family.  Even  grant- 
ing that  the  mention  of  specific  instances  are  not  numerous, 
no  other  ancient  people  furnish  cases  of  influence  of  women 
comparable  with  that  of  the  mother  of  Coriolanus,  the  mother 
of  the  Gracchi,  and  others  of  a  similar  type. 

Biography  as  a  Means.  —  The  influence  of  the  home  was 
supplemented  by  that  of  concrete  types  of  Roman  manhood. 
No  other  people  have  so  effectively  used  the  personager  of 


t88  History  cf  Education 

importance  in  their  own  history  in  the  formation  of  the 
character  of  the  youth  of  each  generation.  Their  earliest 
literature  consisted  of  the  legends  and  heroic  tales  of  the  early 
Romans.  Their  songs  were  but  the  glorification  of  these  same 
deeds.  Something  similar  to  this  occurred  in  Greece  in  the 
earlier  period.  The  Grecian  heroes,  however,  were  demigods 
or  were  constantly  protected  by  the  interposition  of  the  gods, 
and  hence  were  beyond  imitation  by  the  wiser  men  of  later 
generations  ;  the  Roman  heroes,  on  the  other  hand,  possessed 
virtues  and  performed  deeds  such  as  could  be  imitated  by 
every  Roman  boy.  As  the  Greeks  sought  to  shape  character 
by  poetry,  music,  gymnastic,  and  dancing,  so  the  Romans  did 
by  these  two  means,  —  the  influence  of  father  and  mother  in 
the  home,  and  that  furnished  by  familiarity  with  the  heroes 
of  the  past. 

An  indication  of  the  importance  of  such  material  as  the 
content  of  education  is  furnished  by  Plutarch's  Lives,  which 
to  the  Romans  were  lectures  on  education.  Though  written 
by  a  Greek,  such  was  probably  their  use  at  the  time  of  their 
formulation,  and  such  no  doubt  was  the  character  of  the  liter- 
ature, if  such  it  may  be  called  in  its  rudimentary  form,  that 
formed  the  basis  of  the  Roman  education  both  in  the  home 
and  in  the  school.  The  perennial  interest  aroused  and  the 
influence  exerted  by  these  writings  are  a  slight  indication  of 
the  value  of  this  phase  of  Roman  education.  Mr.  Lecky  has 
called  attention  to  the  very  potent  influence  of  such  personal 
ideals  when  embodied  in  personages  near  in  time  and  place 
and  nature ;  more  potent,  indeed,  than  those  of  the  subse- 
quent centuries  wherein  such  ideals  were  furnished  by  saints, 
by  those  who  possessed  supernatural  traits,  or  by  Biblical 
characters  living  in  remote  centuries  and  possessed  of  racial 
characteristics  of  long  ago. 

Thus  again  is  found  a  trait  of  the  practical  mind  :  its  ideals 
are  found  in  the  real,  not  in  the  imaginary,  — not  in  a  single 
'trait  idealized  and  personified.  Its  ideals  are  not  too  remote 


The  Romans  189 

but  are  found  in  concrete  personal  forms  of  actual  per- 
sonages. 

Imitation  as  the  Method.  —  From  what  has  been  said  it 
follows  that  the  most  important  characteristic  of  the  method 
of  Roman  education  was  imitation.  While  the  Greeks  em- 
phasized the  assimilative  character  of  the  soul  and  hence 
sought  for  educational  results  by  creating  an  environment  of 
cultural  value  through  public  works  of  art,  religious  ceremo- 
nials, dramatic,  presentations,  and  a  free  and  open  life  in 
public  places,  the  Romans  emphasized  the  imitative  character 
of  the  soul  and  sought  for  educational  results  by  placing  before 
the  youth  a  concrete  character  to  be  followed.  Though  the 
pedagogue  and  the  inspirer  performed  a  somewhat  similar 
service  with  the  Greeks,  yet  the  function  of  these  was  rather 
to  control  and  direct ;  at  least  this  was  true  of  the  pedagogue, 
who,  because  a  slave,  was  not  to  be  imitated.  The  Roman 
youth  was  to  become  pious,  grave,  reverential,  courageous, 
manly,  prudent,  honest,  by  the  direct  imitation  of  his  father  and 
of  old  Romans  of  so  heroic  a  character  as  to  be  embodied  in 
their  legends  and  histories,  yet  withal  men  who  had  actually 
walked  the  streets  and  had  gathered  in  the  Forum  before  him. 

While  this  use  of  imitation  by  the  Romans  was  of  less  free 
character  than  the  similar  use  by  the  Greeks,  it  was  not  the 
servile  imitation  of  the  Oriental.  To  begin  with,  it  was  the 
imitation  of  a  living  model,  not  of  a  lifeless  form  or  a  specific 
custom  relating  to  petty  forms  handed  down  from  time  imme- 
morial and  without  meaning  to  the  imitator.  So  far  as  the 
Roman  was  bound  by  such  traditional  ways  of  doing  things, 
the  most  important  of  such  accepted  customs  were  formula- 
tions of  principles,  embodied  into  a  code  of  laws,  interpreted 
by  each  successive  generation  to  fit  the  needs  of  a  developing 
civilization  and  of  a  people  ever  widening  their  contact  with 
others. 

In  one  other  important  respect  does  the  method  of  Roman 
education  differ  from  that  of  the  Greeks.  With  both  peoples 


190  History  of  Education 

education  was  primarily  a  process  of  doing  as  opposed  to 
one  of  instruction.  Certain  activities  were  undertaken  to 
form  certain  approved  habits.  Subsequent  to  this  earliei 
phase  of  their  educational  development,  jthe  Greeks  added  a 
process  of  instruction  to  make  such  habits  rational ;  this  the 
Romans  never  developed  as  a  component  part  of  their  edu- 
cation. Though  in  later  periods  they  adopted  the  Greek 
custom,  it  was  not  a  native  process,  neither  did  it  form  an 
essential  part  of  their  conception  of  education  nor  become 
of  general  use  and  significance  until  well  on  in  the  imperial 
period. 

Then,  too,  there  was  a  radical  difference  between  the 
"  doing  process  "  of  the  Greeks  and  that  of  the  Romans.  In 
school  the  Greek  boy  was  trained  in  gymnastics  and  dancing 
to  produce  a  harmony  and  grace  of  physical  development 
and  of  moral  control :  he  learned  to  play  the  lyre  and  to 
repeat  the  Homeric  poems  with  appropriate  musical  accom- 
paniment, all  for  the  purpose  of  developing  a  harmony  of 
the  soul.  The  Romans  rejected  as  marks  of  effeminacy, 
such  gymnastic  training,  dancing,  music,  literature ;  in  brief, 
all  such  educational  means  as  the  Greeks  employed. 
Through  games,  it  is  true,  the  Roman  boy  gained  in  physical 
development  to  a  certain  extent ;  but  not  through  any  organ- 
ized and  systematized  use  of  them.  There  were  no  gymna- 
siums, but  physical  development  was  secured  on  the  martial 
fields  and  in  the  camp,  and  through  the  actual  exercise  with 
weapons,  supplemented  by  the  actual  training  which  he  got 
on  the  farm.  In  every  respect  the  training  of  boys  was 
either  through  an  apprenticeship  to  the  soldier,  the  farmer, 
the  statesman,  or  by  actual  participation  in  these  activities 
that  were  later  required  of  them  as  citizens.  Thus  in  method 
is  seen  the  characteristic  of  the  practical  education,  —  the 
doing  of  the  actual  thing  to  be  done  —  with  no  appreciation 
whatever  of  the  training  and  instruction  in  certain  selected 
activities  that  possess  cultural  value  because  they  plant  in 


The  Romans  191 

the  very  nature  of  the  child  germs  of  a  much  fuller  develop- 
ment in  manhood,  activities  such  as  characterized  the  liberal 
education  of  the  Greeks. 

PERIODS  OF  ROMAN  EDUCATION.  —  Roman  education 
divides  itself  into  £wo  great  periods :  the  one  wherein  its 
ideals  and  practices  are  purely  Roman,  the  other  in  which 
Greek  influence  is  prominent  and  education  becomes  of  a 
composite  or  cosmopolitan  character.  This  change  bears 
some  striking  resemblances  to  the  transition  to  the  new 
Greek  education  at  Athens ;  but  owing  to  the  much  more 
stable  character  of  the  Romans,  the  change  was  a  more 
gradual  one  than  in  Greece  and  affected  the  masses  of  the 
people  much  less  radically.  In  some  respects,  particularly 
in  religion  and  to  a  certain  extent  in  their  laws,  the  Greek 
influence  was  early  exerted  upon  the  Romans.  It  was  a 
tradition  that  the  decemvirs  visited  Greece  previous  to  the 
formulation  of  the  Laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables  (450  B.C.). 
From  Greece  also  at  an  earlier  date  they  had  drawn  their 
alphabet.  Yet  no  profound  influence  was  exerted  socially 
and  little  educationally  until  near  the  middle  of  the  second 
century  B.C.  Subsequent  to  that  time  the  Greek  educational 
ideals  may  be  said  to  dominate,  so  far  as  formal  or  institu- 
tional education  is  concerned.  The  somewhat  radical  con- 
quest in  this  respect  was  due  to  the  fact  that  Rome  had  no 
native  system  of  educational  institutions  to  be  supplanted. 
Various  events  may  be  taken  as  indicative  of  this  change. 
Professor  Laurie  accepts  as  the  point  of  demarcation  148  B.C., 
the  death  of  Cato,  who  for  so  long  and  so  strenuously  opposed 
the  growth  of  Greek  ideas  and  customs.  The  date  of  the 
conquest  of  Greece  by  the  Romans,  146  B.C.,  might  with 
equal  propriety  be  taken,  since  immediately  thereafter  many 
Greek  scholars,  Greek  literature,  and  even  libraries  were 
transferred  to  Rome  by  the  conquerors.  The  year  161 
possesses  a  similar  significance,  for  at  that  time  the  senate 


192  History  of  Education 

at  the  instigation  of  the  praetor  decreed  the  expulsion  oi 
philosophers  and  rhetoricians  from  Rome.  All  three  events 
indicate  that  the  conquest  was  only  begun,  and  that  the 
dominance  of  Greek  educative  practices  and  institutions  does 
not  become  complete  until  about  the  time  of  the  empire  (31 
B.C.)  But  if  a  specific  personality  must  be  found  to  make 
definite  the  delimitation,  no  individual  would  be  so  significant 
as  Cicero  (106-43  B.C.),  who  was  the  first  Roman  to  rise  to 
prominence  and  to  power  through  oratory  ;  and  if  a  specific 
date  is  desired,  55  B.C.,  the  date  of  publication  of  Cicero's 
work  on  Oratory  would  be  most  appropriate,  for  this  work 
is  the  first  formulation  by  a  Roman  of  the  Grecianized  educa- 
tional ideal.  Each  of  these  general  periods  divides  into  two 
sub-periods. 

Period  of  Early  Roman  Education  (753 -about  250  B.C.). 
—  During  this  period  the  features  previously  given  concern- 
ing Roman  education  dominated  completely.  The  rearing 
of  the  child  was  in  the  hands  of  the  mother,  the  training  of 
the  boy  in  the  hands  of  the  father.  The  home  was  practi- 
cally the  only  school,  though  early  the  boy  became  the  com- 
panion of  his  father  in  business,  public  and  private,  on  the 
street,  in  the  forum,  and  in  the  camp.  .Education  was 
largely  moral ;  discipline  was  severe ;  their  ideals  were  rigor- 
ous. The  slight  literary  element  entering  into  their  educa- 
tion was  that  connected  with  the  religious  and  choral  service, 
where  religious  choruses  and  national  hymns  were  to  be 
learned,  and  in  connection  with  the  Laws  of  the  Twelve 
Tables.  These  fundamental  laws  of  the  republic,  adopted 
451  and  450  B.C.,  remained  the  basis  of  Roman  society  for 
almost  a  thousand  years.  In  the  function  they  performed 
these  laws  resembled  somewhat  the  laws  of  Lycurgus,  though 
they  deajt.not  with  education  but  with  the  power  of  the  father, 
property  rights,  religious  services,  political  and  military  obli- 
gations, and  similar  subjects.  In  the  broadest  sense,  they 
constituted  the  framework  of  Roman  society  and  hence 


The  Romans  193 

embodied  the  ideals  of  life  that  gave  to  education  its  con- 
crete ends.  The  relation  of  the  laws  to  education  in  the 
narrower  sense  consisted,  first,  in  the  definite  embodiment 
of  the  power  of  the  father  over  the  child  and  his  duty  con- 
cerning his  training;  second,  in  the  custom  followed  for 
many  generations  of  requiring  every  boy  to  learn  the  tables 
as  they  were  posted  in  the  Forum  and  to  become  perfectly 
familiar  with  their  meaning.  This  in  itself  offered  no  insig- 
nificant intellectual  training,  though  its  practical  character 
made  such  training  very  different  from  that  which  the  Greek 
boy  acquired  from  a  similar  familiarity  with  Homer. 

During  the  latter  part  of  this  period,  elementary  schools 
furnished  the  rudiments  of  the  arts  of  reading,  writing,  and 
arithmetic.  Shortly  after  the  introduction  of  the  Twelve 
Tables,  mention  is  made  of  them  in  the  story  of  Virginia,  who 
is  said  to  have  been  seized  from  one  of  these  schools  by  one 
of  the  decemvirs.  Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  such  schools 
appear  long  before  the  close  of  this  period  and  supplement 
the  education  of  the  home  in  formal  matters.  Such  ele- 
mentary schools  were  known  as  ludi  (ludus,  — play,  sport,  or 
a  turning  aside),1  a  name  that  indicates  that  their  function 
was  only  supplementary,  and  that  they  were  not  essential  to 
the  real  education  of  the  Roman  youth.  Such  schools  were 
of  a  purely  private  character,  and  were  held  in  some  private 
home  or  in  an  unfrequented  nook  or  porch  of  a  temple  or 
other  public  building.  Even  in  the  matter  of  the  training  in 
the  arts  of  reading  and  calculating,  these  schools  evidently 
represented  a  "  diversion  "  from  the  ordinary  custom  of  the 
home. 

Period  of  Introduction  of  Greek  Schools.  —  The  time  from 
the  middle  of  the  third  century  to  the  middle  of  the  first  cen- 
tury constituted  a  period  of  transition,  during  which  Greek 
customs  and  ideas  were  introduced.  This  period  substan- 

1  A  somewhat  similar  idea  is  contained  in  the  Greek  word  for  school,  —  scholi, 
leisure. 


194  History  of  Education 

tially  coincided  with  the  period  of  national  expansion  through 
out  the  peninsula  of  Italy.  Previous  to  this  time  Rome 
was  only  a  local  community ;  after  this  period  Rome  became 
an  empire  which  had  necessarily  to  acquire  a  cosmopolitan 
culture.  By  the  time  of  the  opening  of  this  transitional 
period,  the  elementary  schools  (schools  of  the  [iterators,  they 
were  also  called)  were  quite  numerous  and  soon  came  to 
be  known  as  schools  of  the  grammatists  as  well.  This  of 
itself  indicates  that  a  transition  was  going  on.  About  the  open- 
ing of  this  period  Livius  Andronicus  (c.  284-204  B.C.)  trans- 
lated the  Odyssey  into  Latin.  The  book  was  soon  introduced 
into  these  schools,  giving  them  a  more  literary  content  than 
they  had  hitherto  possessed.  The  translation  of  other  Greek 
productions  followed  rapidly,  and  Latin  literature  took  its 
rise  at  the  same  time.  This  growth  of  literary  material  soon 
produced  a  radical  advance  in  education,  namely,  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Greek  grammar  school  distinct  from  the  ludus 
in  form,  and  superior  to  it.  The  exact  time  of  introduction 
is  difficult  to  determine.  The  Greek  Andronicus,  previously 
mentioned,  was  (in  267  B.C.)  brought  as  a  slave  to  Rome  from 
his  home  in  southern  Italy,  and  after  securing  his  freedom 
is  said  to  have  become  a  teacher  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
languages.  Ennius  (239-169),  another  Greek  author  and 
translator,  is  said  to  have  engaged  in  similar  work.  Plutarch 
mentions  Spurius  Carvilius  as  the  first  to  open  a  school  at 
Rome  (260  B.C.).  Undoubtedly  Plutarch  means  a  grammar 
school,  for  the  schools  of  the  literators  were  frequent  before 
this  time.  It  is  probable  that  none  of  these  did  more  than 
give  some  knowledge  of  Greek  literature  through  transla- 
tions, and  some  slight  knowledge  of  the  language  to  a  chosen 
few.  Consequently  they  cannot  be  said  to  have  established 
schools.  Suetonius  mentions  Crates  of  Mallos,  a  Greek 
ambassador  to  Rome,  who  met  with  an  accident  through 
falling  into  an  open  sewer  and  was  thus  detained  at  Rome 
(157  B.C.)  as  the  first  Greek  teacher  there.  Suetonius  opens 


The  Romans  195 

his  Lives  of  Eminent  Grammarians  (written  about  121  A.D.) 
as  follows :  "  The  science  of  grammar  was  in  ancient  times 
far  from  being  in  vogue  in  Rome ;  indeed  it  was  of  little  use 
in  a  rude  state  of  society,  when  the  people  were  engaged  in 
constant  war  and  had  not  much  time  to  bestow  upon  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  liberal  arts.  At  the  outset,  its  pretensions 
were  very  slender,  for  the  earliest  men  of  learning,  who  were 
both  poets  and  orators,  may  be  considered  as  half  Greek." 
He  then  goes  on  to  mention  Livius  and  Ennius,  as  the  first  of 
these,  and  Crates  as  the  first  teacher  of  grammar.  Ennius 
came  to  Rome  in  204  B.C.;  Crates  in  157  B.C.  However 
doubtful  the  origin  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  by  the  close 
of  this  period,  at  the  date  given  by  Suetonius  as  that  of 
the  first  grammatical  teacher,  schools  of  this  kind,  taught 
by  a  grammaticus  or  Uterdius  as  distinguished  from  the 
grammatist  or  literator  of  the  ludus,  were  frequent;  for 
in  161  B.C.  the  Senate  decreed  that  "It  shall  be  lawful  for 
M.  Pomponius,  the  praetor,  to  take  such  measures,  and  make 
such  provisions  as  the  good  of  the  Republic  and  the  duties 
of  his  office  require,  that  no  philosophers  or  rhetoricians  be 
suffered  at  Rome." 

This  edict  refers  to  another  type  of  teachers  higher  than 
and  developing  from  the  grammar  teachers.  According  to 
Suetonius  (b.  79  A.D.),  who  gives  us  this  information,  gram- 
marians came  in  time  to  teach  rhetoric,  and  it  was  a  frequent 
occurrence,  even  within  the  memory  of  his  own  father,  that 
"some  of  the  pupils  of  the  grammarians  passed  directly 
from  the  schools  to  the  courts."  But  long  before  the  time 
of  Suetonius,  even  before  the  close  of  the  period  we  are  now 
considering,  the  Greek  conquest  of  Roman  education  was 
insured  by  the  introduction  of  the  schools  of  rhetors  to 
continue  the  work  of  the  grammarians.  That  the  reception 
of  these  innovations  was  not  a  hearty  one  and  that  their, 
influence  was  not  general  until  the  imperial  period,  is  evi- 
denced by  the  fact  that  the  instances  of  the  few  notable  men 


196  History  of  Education 

who  underwent  a  rhetorical  training  and  profited  practicallj 
by  it,  such  as  Cicero,  Pompey,  Caesar,  Mark  Antony,  and 
even  Augustus,  are  cited  by  Suetonius  as  unusual.  He  states 
that  by  slow  degrees,  rhetoric  made  itself  manifest  as  a  use- 
ful and  honorable  study,  and  that  many  persons  devoted 
themselves  to  it,  both  as  a  means  of  defense  of  personal 
rights  and  as  a  means  of  acquiring  reputation.  The  custom 
of  sending  the  youth  to  Greece  to  receive  this  rhetorical  train- 
ing, as  in  the  case  of  Cicero,  became  established  during  this 
period.  The  introduction  of  the  Latin  rhetoric  school  not 
only  supplemented  the  work  of  the  Greek  rhetorical  schools, 
but  gave  a  much  wider  scope  to  this  formal  or  rhetorical  edu- 
cation, since  it  affected  a  much  larger  portion  of  the  popula- 
tion. In  92  B.C.  the  censors  issued  the  following  decree:  — 

"  It  is  reported  to  us  that  certain  persons  have  instituted 
a  new  kind  of  discipline ;  that  our  youth  resort  to  their 
schools  ;  that  they  have  assumed  the  title  of  Latin  Rheto- 
ricians ;  and  that  young  men  waste  their  time  there  for  whole 
days  together.  Our  ancestors  have  ordained  what  instruction 
it  is  fitting  their  children  should  receive,  and  what  schools 
they  should  attend.  These  novelties,  contrary  to  the  customs 
and  instructions  of  our  ancestors,  we  neither  approve,  nor  do 
they  appear  to  us  good.  Wherefore  it  appears  to  be  our 
duty  that  we  should  notify  our  judgment  both  to  those  who 
keep  such  schools,  and  those  who  are  in  the  practice  of 
frequenting  them,  that  they  meet  our  disapprobation." 

Both  the  similarity  of  the  movement  and  of  the  attitude  of 
the  conservative  elements  in  society  to  that  of  the  transitional 
period  in  Greece  is  indicated  by  this  edict.  Yet  it  is  evident 
that  throughout  this  period  the  old  Roman  ideals  and  prac- 
tices in  education  prevailed  and  that  the  process  centered  in 
the  home  and  not  in  the  school.  Aside  from  the  Indus,  now 
all  but  universal  but  always  private  in  character  and  often 
kept  by  a  slave,  the  schools  were  an  innovation  and  influ- 
enced only  a  small  element  composed  of  the  leading  families. 


The  Romans  197 

The  account  which  the  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  gives  of 
his  own  education,  as  late  as  the  second  Christian  century, 
suggests  how  extensively  the  old  customs  and  ideas  persisted 
even  so  late  in  the  imperial  period.1 

Third  or  Imperial  Period :  The  Hellenized  Roman  Educa- 
tion. —  During  this  period,  including  about  one  century  B.C. 
and  two  centuries  A.D.,  the  Romans  attempted  to  introduce 
the  new  wine  of  Greek  culture  and  intellectual  activity  and 
individualism  into  the  old  bottles  of  Roman  institutional  life. 
Never  before,  perhaps  never  at  any  time,  has  one  people 
attempted  to  appropriate  so  thoroughly  the  intellectual  life  of 
another.  The  native  vigor  of  the  Roman  character  made  it 
possible  to  do  this  without  a  complete  surrender  of  their  own 
characteristics  and  consequently  rendered  some  modification 
of  the  Greek  intellectual  and  educational  characteristics 
necessary.  The  Romans  never  acquired  the  intellectuality, 
versatility  or  the  originality  of  the  Greeks  ;  at  most,  they 
succeeded  in  mastering  the  external ;  at  best,  they  perfected 
the  form  of  literature ;  at  worst,  in  the  later  centuries  of 
the  empire,  in  intellectual  life  and  literature  their  education 
became  one  of  pure  form  possessing  little  content  or  real 
value. 

The  general  means  by  which  the  Romans  appropriated  the 
Greek  culture  was  by  an  adoption  of  their  educational  insti- 
tutions, now  perfected  into  a  system  such  as  the  Greeks 
never  developed. 

The  School  of  the  Literator  (or  Ludimagister)  during  this 
period  was  somewhat  more  fully  developed,  though  the  details 
oT  its  work  are  not  fully  known.  Even  .at  this  time  this  ele- 
mentary school  never  attempted  to  give  more  than  the  merest 
rudiments  of  the  arts  of  reading,  writing,  and  calculation. 
Since  reading  was  taken  up  in  the  grammatical  school  as  a  fine 
art,  it  is  probable  that,  when  the  boy  had  mastered  the  art  of 
reading  ordinary  prose,  he  was  immediately  transferred  to 

1  Source  Book,  pp.  377-385. 


198  History  of  Education 

the  higher  school.  By  the  time  of  Cicero,  the  Laws  of  the 
Twelve  Tables  disappeared  from  these  schools,  and  their 
place  was  taken  by  portions  of  the  Latinized  Odyssey  or 
by  versified  moral  maxims.  Though  there  are  frequent 
exceptions,  as  in  the  case  of  Horace  (p.  186),  whose  descrip- 
tion of  school  life  is  pertinent  in  this  connection,  the  Greek 
pedagogue  had  generally  replaced  the  father  in  the  direct  over- 
sight of  the  child.  More  attention  was  given  at  Rome  to 
the  selection  of  the  pedagogue  than  in  Greece.  That  they 
were  not  all  ignorant  is  evidenced  by  the  case  of  Palae- 
mon,  author  of  one  of  the  earliest  scientific  treatises  on 
Latin  grammar,  who  first  distinguished  the  four  declensions, 
who  was  the  instructor  of  Quintilian,  and  was  himself  one 
of  the  most  famous  Romans  of  his  day.  Yet  he  acquired 
the  rudiments  of  literature  as  he  attended  his  master's  boy 
in  the  school  as  a  pedagogue. 

Such  schools  were  very  common.  The  room  was  in  a 
private  house  or  in  a  shed  or  booth,  or  even  in  the  open  air. 
This  phase  of  education,  being  non-Grecian,  never  received 
any  general  attention,  nor  such  teachers  —  often  mere  slaves 
—  any  public  esteem. 

The  School  of  the  Grammaticus  now  became  a  definitely 
formulated  educational  institution  with  an  elaborate  method,  a 
fixed  curriculum,  and  receiving  public  support.  Such  schools 
were  of  two  types ;  the  one  for  the  teaching  of  the  Greek  lan- 
guage, the  other  for  the  Latin  language.  Quintilian  recom- 
mends the  attendance  at  the  Greek  schools  and  the  learning 
of  the  Greek  language  first.  The  Latin  Grammar  Schools  at 
least  were  to  be  found  in  every  city  in  the  empire  and  re- 
mained as  one  of  the  most  persistent  institutions  of  the  old 
pagan  civilization  until  the  overthrow  of  Roman  culture  by 
the  barbarians.  The  major  part  of  the  work  of  these  schools 
was,  as  the  name  indicates,  the  study  of  grammar.  But 
grammar  included  more  than  the  term  signifies  with  us,  for  it 
related  to  the  study  both  of  the  linguistic  elements  and  of  the 


The  Romans 


199 


literary  products  of  a  language.  They  were  essentially  liter- 
ary schools:  a  master  was  called  a  literatus  as  well  as  a 
grammaticus.  And  literature  might  be,  certainly  was  in  the 
conception  of  Quintilian,  a  broader  conception  than  with  us, 
for  it  included  the  work  of  the  historians  and  of  the  scientific 
writers  as  well  as  of  the  poets.  Varro  (born  116  B.C.),  the 
learned  Roman  of  the  period  of  Cicero,  wrote  on  all  the  seven 


A  ROMAN  SCHOOL.    FROM  A  MURAL  DECORATION  AT  POMPEII. 

liberal  arts,  i.e.  grammar,  rhetoric,  dialectic,  arithmetic,  geom- 
etry, music,  astronomy,  and  on  medicir-e  and  architecture 
besides.  For  the  Romans,  the  world  of  learning  had  become 
quite  identical  in  outline  with  that  of  the  Greeks.  It  is  certain 
that  to  some  extent  mathematics,  music,  and  rudimentary 
dialectics  were  introduced  into  the  grammar  schools.  The  fact 
that  these  schools  trespassed  upon  the  grounds  of  the  rhetor- 
ical schools  has  previously  been  noted.  This  combination  of 
function  continued,  especially  in  smaller  communities,  late 
into  imperial  times.  In  all  of  the  studies  mentioned  the 


2OO  History  of  Education 

practical  character  of  Roman  life  was  never  lost  sight  of, 
their  use  never  became  identical  with  that  in  the  Greek 
schools.  Gymnastic  and  dancing  were  never  introduced;  the 
former  was  taught  only  in  connection  with  military  training 
and  the  latter,  if  ever,  in  the  home.  To  the  legal  tendency, 
the  systematizing  character,  and  the  practical  bent  of  the 
Roman  mind,  the  study  of  grammar  recommended  itself,  and 
it  is  in  this  subject  that  the  educational  activities  of  these 
schools  are  seen  to  the  best  advantage.  The  elements  of 
Latin  grammar  were  formulated  early  in  the  imperial  period, 
though  the  particular  form  given  to  the  subject  in  later  ages 
was  the  immediate  work  of  Donatus  (fourth  century)  and 
Priscian  (fifth  century). 

Quintilian  has  furnished  a  general  account  of  the  work  of 
these  schools  at  their  best.  The  master  read  with  the  pupils 
a  wide  selection  of  poets  and  historians,  of  which  the  Latin- 
ized Homer,  Vergil,  and  Horace  were  the  standards.  Com- 
ment was  made  upon  both  substance  and  literary  form,  and 
especial  attention  was  given  to  oral  reading,  as  preliminary 
to  oratorical  training.  This  was  followed  by  elaborate  ex- 
ercises in  paragraphing,  composition,  and  verse  writing.  A 
much  used  form  of  exercise  was  the  assignment  of  a  theme 
in  the  form  of  a  quotation  or  maxim  from  some  writer,  to  be 
taken  as  the  basis  of  an  elaborate  thesis  or  composition. 
This  then  was  declaimed.  According  to  Professor  Jullien 
such  theses  followed  this  outline :  (a)  a  panegyric  upon  the 
author,  (b}  the  expansion  of  the  thought,  (c)  the  explanation 
and  defense  of  the  principle  underlying  the  thought,  (</)  a 
comparison  of  the  thought  with  similar  ideas  of  other  authors, 
(e)  confirmatory  quotations  or  incidents,  (/)  practical  ex- 
hortation. Through  the  training  in  declamation  afforded  by 
these  exercises  the  work  of  the  grammatical  school  merged 
into  that  of  the  rhetorical  school.  But  the  main  purpose  of 
the  former  was  different  from  that  of  the  latter :  in  the  gram- 
matical school  the  object  was  to  give  a  mastery  of  the  Ian- 


The  Romans  201 

guage,  a  correctness  of  expression  in  reading,  in  writing,  and 
in  speaking,  and  to  do  this  through  a  familiarity  with  the  best 
Greek  and  Latin  authors.  Thus  the  literary  education 
developed  by  the  Greeks  as  the  highest  form  of  the  liberal 
education  was  further  developed  along  the  definite  line  of 
a  practical  education  for  the  life  of  affairs. 

The  School  of  the  Rhetor  was  the  culmination  of  this 
practical  literary  education.  Similar  to  the  schools  of  the 
sophists,  or  rather,  of  the  later  rhetoricians  of  Greece,  these 
schools  furnished  a  direct  preparation  for  the  life  of  public 
affairs  at  Rome,  and  consequently  were  patronized  only  by 
those  who  expected  to  devote  their  lives  to  a  public  career. 
During  the  later  imperial  period  such  a  life  became  the 
distinctive  characteristic  of  the  members  of  the  senatorial 
class,  as  that  class  was  enlarged  to  include  great  numbers 
who  had  no  other  qualification  save  the  favor  of  the  emperor 
or  some  high  official  or  the  possession  of  wealth  which  would 
enable  them  to  secure  exemption  from  the  obligations  of 
ordinary  citizenship.  Hence,  although  all  inspiration  that 
might  come  to  oratory  from  love  of  freedom  was  gone,  this 
rhetorical  education  developed  and  expanded  during  these 
imperial  centuries. 

Oratory  was  of  greater  and  of  more  lasting  importance 
at  Rome  than  among  the  Greeks.  Whereas  the  Greeks 
found  an  outlet  for  their  higher  intellectual  interests  in  the 
philosophical  schools  and  in  the  new  religions,  the  Romans 
found  in  oratory  the  practical  application  of  every  aspect  of 
higher  learning  that  appealed  to  them.  As  Cicero  explains 
in  his  de  Oratore,  the  orator  must  have  the  philosopher's 
knowledge  both  of  things  and  of  human  nature,  but  he  must 
also  have  the  power  to  make  such  knowledge  of  practical 
value  in  influencing  his  fellows  through  speech.  To  the 
Roman,  then,  this  power  of  the  orator  represented  in 
general  the  various  ways  in  which  an  educated  man  in 
modern  times  can  make  his  knowledge  effective  in  the 


2O2  History   of  Education 

service  of  his  fellow-men.  It  is  not  that  this  conception 
of  education  is  narrow,  but  rather  that  the  social  organiza- 
tion of  the  times  gave  but  few  facilities  for  bringing  intellect 
to  bear  upon  practical  affairs.  The  great  warriors  of  the 
times  were  also  great  orators ;  they  were  often  great  leaders 
because  great  orators.  The  orator  was  greater  than  the 
philosopher,  because  the  orator  included  the  philosopher. 
The  functions  performed  in  modern  society,  by  the  pulpit, 
the  press,  the  rostrum,  the  bar,  the  legislative  debate,  even 
by  the  university,  were  in  those  times  all  performed  by  the 
orator.  Hence  at  its  best  the  ideal  was  a  great  one.  It  is 
only  when  we  come  to  consider  its  ordinary  realization  that 
it  appears  formal,  artificial,  and  restricted. 

The  rhetorical  training  of  the  youth  began  at  about  the 
fifteenth  year  of  age,  the  time  the  boy  laid  aside  the  toga 
pratexta  and  assumed  the  dress  of  manhood.  Then  if  des- 
tined for  a  public  career  he  entered  the  rhetorical  school  to 
supplement  the  thorough  linguistic  training  he  had  received 
in  the  grammar  schools.  The  length  of  time  spent  on  this 
stage  of  education  would  depend  upon  his  interests,  his 
abilities,  and  the  schools  he  attended. 

The  routine  of  the  school  consisted  for  the  most  part  in 
declamation  and  debate.  The  stock  themes  for  debate  find 
frequent  mention,  especially  in  the  writings  of  the  satirists. 
Among  such  themes  were  these:  "Was  Hannibal  justified 
in  his  delay  before  the  walls  of  Rome  ? "  "  Was  a  slave 
about  whose  neck  a  master  had  hung  the  leather  or  golden 
token  (the  bulla,  worn  only  by  the  free  Roman  youth),  in 
order  to  smuggle  him  past  the  boundary,  freed  when  he 
reached  Roman  soil  wearing  this  insignia  of  freedom  ? "  "_If 
a  stranger  buys  a  prospective  draught  of  fishes  and  the 
fisherman  draws  up  a  casket  of  jewels,  does  the  stranger 
own  the  jewels  ? "  These  and  similar  problems  relating 
to  fine  distinctions  in  Roman  law  or  in  moral  principle  were 
the  whetstones  of  their  rhetorical  wits. 


The  Romans  203 

At  its  best,  however,  the  rhetorical  school  included  much 
more  than  this  exercise  in  debate.  According  to  Quintilian, 
the  grammar  school  should  thoroughly  acquaint  the  boy 
with  all  literature;  and  the  rhetorical  school,  in  a  similar 
manner,  should  give  him  a  knowledge  of  music,  of  arith- 
metic, of  geometry,  of  astronomy,  and  of  philosophy.  He 
rejects  the  objection  that  so  many  studies  cannot  be  followed 
with  profit,  and  holds  that  the  human  mind  can  attend  to 
many  things  at  once  and  that  the  orator,  above  all  others, 
must  possess  this  power.  Quintilian  enumerates  the  qualifi- 
cations of  the  orator  as  follows :  a  knowledge  of  things 
(gained  through  a  mastery  of  literature) ;  a  good  vocabulary 
and  an  ability  to  make  careful  choice  of  words ;  a  knowledge 
of  human  emotions  and  the  power  of  arousing  them ;  a 
gracefulness  and  urbanity  of  manners ;  a  knowledge  of  his- 
tory and  of  law ;  a  good  delivery ;  a  good  memory.  Beyond 
this  he  holds,  also,  that  no  one  can  be  a  good  orator  unless 
he  is  first  a  good  man.  j[  This  is  the  ideal,  sketched  by  the 
most  successful  teacher  and  the  ablest  expositor  of  this  con- 
ception of  education ;  but  as  with  most  educational  ideals, 
the  extant  fragmentary  knowledge  of  the  actual  status  of 
these  schools  forces  the  conclusion  that  it  was  far  removed 
from  the  reality. 

Libraries  and  Universities.  —  In  a  most  literal  sense  the 
higher  education  of  Rome  was  an  imitation  of  Greece.  Its 
earlier  libraries  were  taken  as  spoils  from  the  Greeks,  just  as 
the  earliest  of  its  higher  teachers  were  slaves  or  refugees 
from  Greece  as  a  result  of  the  Roman  conquest.  In  167 
B.C.  the  conqueror  Paulus  jdnilius  brought  over  the  first  of 
these  libraries ;  Sulla  and  later  conquerors  brought  others. 
Augustus  founded  two  public  libraries.  With  the  golden 
age  of  Latin  literature,  books  were  multiplied,  many  libraries 
were  founded,  and  all  the  appurtenances  of  an  age  of  cul- 
ture abounded.  With  the  library  founded  by  Vespasian 
169-79  A-D.)  in  the  Temple  of  Peace,  erected  after  the  fire 


2O4  History  of  Education 

of  Nero,  the  university  of  Rome  had  its  origin.  Undei 
Hadrian  (117-138  A.D.)  and  the  later  emperors  interested 
in  literature  and  education,  this  was  developed  into  a  deft 
nite  institution  termed  the  Athenaeum,  though  it  resembled 
more  the  university  at  Alexandria.  Following  the  influence 
of  this  institution  and  the  practical  genius  of  the  Romans,  the 
university  gave  more  attention  to  law  and  medicine  than  to 
philosophy.  The  liberal  arts,  especially  grammar  and  rheto- 
ric, were  fully  represented  both  in  the  Latin  and  in  the 
Greek  languages.  Later,  teachers  of  architecture,  mathe 
matics,  and  mechanics  were  appointed  by  the  emperors,  — 
at  least  by  Alexander  Severus.  These  lines  of  instruction 
represented  the  entire  work  of  the  university ;  in  them  all 
there  was  nothing  in  the  way  of  investigation  or  of  creative 
speculation.  All  instruction  consisted  in  formal  discipline 
such  as  was  given  in  the  lower  schools  or  in  the  mere  exposi- 
tion of  the  subject  as  organized  by  the  Greeks. 

While  the  grammar  and  rhetorical  schools  were  distributed 
over  the  provinces,  the  same  cannot  be  said  of  the  universi- 
ties. Aside  from  the  Greek  centers  of  culture,  all  of  which 
were  in  the  East  except  Massilia  (the  modern  Marseilles),  there 
were  no  universities  under  the  Roman  regime.  The  estab- 
lishment of  such  libraries  in  provincial  towns  was  at  least  an 
occasional  occurrence.  In  several  of  the  epistles  (e.g.  Bk.  i, 
Ep.  8)  of  Pliny  the  Younger,  the  establishment  of  such  libra- 
ries is  described  with  a  provision  of  a  peculiarly  modern  flavor, 
—  that  the  gift  is  to  be  made  if  the  locality  will  grant  an 
annual  support  for  the  maintenance  of  scholarships  or  for 
the  use  and  care  of  the  library. 

Support  of  Schools  by  the  Empire.  —  While  during  imperial 
times  the  number  of  schools  increased  to  such  an  extent  that 
scarcely  a  provincial  town  was  without  its  grammar  school, 
yet  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  a  system  of  schools  existed  : 
there  was  no  governmental  oversight  of  these  schools  ;  there 
was  no  compulsion  in  their  establishment ;  there  was  no 


The  Romans  205 

uniformity  in  their  character.  But  from  the  fact  that  the 
government,  bj?th  imperial  and  municipal,  came  to  the  sup- 
port of  these  schools,  many  of  them  lost  their  private  char- 
~3cter  and  in  that  sense  may  be  said  to  have  constituted  a 
system. 

The  custom  described  by  Suetonius  as  introduced  by 
Vespasian,  of  the  payment  of  salaries  of  grammarians  and 
rhetoricians  from  the  imperial  treasury,  had  developed  the 
University  of  Rome.  Hadrian  and  some  of  the  later 
emperors  extended  their  benefactions.  But  it  was  Anto- 
ninus Pius  (138-161  A.D.)  who  was  the  first  to  systematize 
this  encouragement  of  education.  He  extended  to  gram- 
marians, rhetoricians,  philosophers  many  of  the  privileges  of 
the  senatorial  class  and  exempted  them  from  many  of  the 
burdensome  obligations  of  the  curiales  in  regard  to  the  pay- 
ment of  municipal  taxes,  the  support  of  the  soldiery,  the 
obligation  of  military  service,  etc.  As  these  measures 
offered  but  one  more  opportunity  to  escape  from  the  op- 
pressed ranks  of  Roman  citizenship,  so  many  attempted  to 
avail  themselves  of  these  privileges  that  restrictions  were 
soon  imposed.  By  these  only  a  few  were  allowed  such 
privileges.  The  number  varied  from  five  grammarians  and 
sophists  or  rhetors  in  the  provincial  capital  to  three  of 
each  in  the  smaller  cities.  Under  Constantine  and  later 
emperors  these  privileges  became  the  basis  of  the  special 
privileges  conferred  upon  the  Christian  clergy.  Constan- 
tine, in  edicts  of  321,  326,  333,  reaffirmed  all  the  previous 
enactments  regarding  teachers  and  extended  their  privileges. 
Exempted  from  nearly  all  the  burdens  of  both  imperial  and 
municipal  character,  from  all  the  obligations  of  the  curiales, 
they  were  yet  permitted  to  accept  the  curial  magistracies  and 
the  highest  honors.  They  and  their  families  were  even  made 
sacred  in  their  persons,  and  all  outrages  or  offenses  against 
them  were  most  severely  punished.  The  emperor  Gratian  took 
one  step  further  and,  in  the  case  of  many  communities, 


-2O6  History  of  Education 

though  it  never  became  universal,  duplicated  the  amount 
contributed  from  the  municipal  treasuries  for  the  support 
of  schools.  For  the  most  part,  however,  the  support  of 
schools  remained  a  charge  upon  the  municipalities.  The 
same  emperor  in  376  established  a  fixed  schedule  for  teachers 
throughout  the  empire ;  rhetors  in  large  Jtowns  were  to  receive 
twenty-four  annonce?  and  grammarians  half  that  sum.  While 
the  professional  chairs  in  these  schools  were  filled  for  the 
most  part  through  election  by  the  municipal  government  — 
though  some  were  appointed  direct  by  the  emperors  —  the 
Emperor  Julian  asserted  the  right  to  pass  upon  all  appoint- 
ments and  delegated  officers  to  perform  this  service  for  him. 
The  object  of  this  law,  coming  as  it  did  from  the  apostate 
emperor,  was  to  eliminate  Christian  teachers  from  these 
schools.  In  425  the  nearest  approach  to  an  imperial  system 
was  made  by  the  emperors  Theodosius  and  Valentinian,  who 
made  the  government  the  sole  authority  in  the  establishment 
of  schools  and  declared  any  attempt  to  found  a  school  by  a 
private  party  to  be  a  penal  offense. 

Educational  Writers  during  the  Imperial  Period.  —  Having 
no  thought  of  the  connection  between  school  education  and 
the  general  welfare  of  the  state,  recognizing  no  connection  be- 
tween its  fundamental  principles  and  problems  and  those  of 
the  science  of  ethics,  and  seeing  no  intimate  connection 
between  its  functions  and  the  general  morality  of  social  life, 
the  educational  writings  of  the  Romans  possess  none  of  that 
permanent  value  found  in  those  of  the  Greeks.  For  the 
most  part  our  information  concerning  the  education  of  the 
Romans  is  drawn  from  brief  references  scattered  throughout 
the  literature,  beginning  with  Plautus,  and  including  among 
those  of  the  first  century  and  a  quarter  of  the  Christian  era, 
Horace,  Martial,  Juvenal,  Seneca,  Suetonius,  Tacitus,  Pliny, 
and  Marcus  Aurelius. 

Seneca  is  the  one  writer  whose  point  of  view  would  be 

J  Annona,  the  yearly  allowance  of  a  common  soldier. 


The  Romans  207 

likely  to  approximate  most  nearly  that  of  the  Greeks.  It  is 
true  that  he  considers  education  to  be  in  close  contact  with 
life,  but  he  has  little  to  suggest  except  stray  observations, 
full  of  truth  and  still  often  quoted,  but  offering  no  underlying 
principles  of  education.  Among  his  famous  maxims  are 
these  :  "We  should  learn  for  life  not  for  school;  "  "  We  best 
learn  by  teaching ;  "  "  The  result  is  gained  sooner  by  ex- 
ample than  by  precept." 

Cicero  in  his  de  Oratore,  Tacitus  in  his  de  Oratoribus, 
Quintilian  in  his  de  Institutions  Oratoria,  all  discuss  the 
rhetorical  education  and  the  orator  as  the  ideal  of  the  edu- 
cated man.  All  agree  in  considering  the  orator  as  the 
educated  man  who  puts  his  intelligence  and  his  learning  to 
practical  use ;  all  agree  that  the  orator  as  a  type  is  higher 
than  the  philosopher  because  inclusive  of  him  ;  all  agree  that 
the  orator  should  have  a  knowledge  of  the  preliminary  sciences 
• —  of  practically  the  entire  realm  of  knowledge ;  all  agree 
that  the  orator  should  be  primarily  the  good  man. 

Quintilian's  Institutes  of  Oratory  is  the  only  practical 
exposition  of  the  entire  field  of  education,  given  to  us  by  a 
Roman,  and  the  first  scientific  statement  of  the  problems  of 
education,  in  the  narrower  use  of  the  word.  Besides  treating 
of  the  necessary  preliminary  studies,  the  qualifications  of  the 
orator,  and  the  methods  of  grammatical  and  rhetorical  study, 
as  previously  indicated,  it  deals  also  with  a  great  number  of 
practical  educational  problems.  In  a  long  argument  Quin- 
tilian shows  the  superiority  of  public  school  education  over 
private  tutorial  education ;  he  condemns  the  use  of  physical 
force  and  emphasizes  the  necessity  of  making  studies  attract- 
ive ;  he  points  out  the  proper  attitude  of  the  teacher  to  the 
pupil ;  he  emphasizes  the  fact  that  different  natures  demand 
different  treatment  and  urges  the  study  of  the  dispositions  of 
the  pupils  by  the  teachers ;  and  he  indicates  the  importance 
of  the  selection  of  teachers  and  the  qualifications  they  should 
possess.  The  greater  part  of  his  work,  consisting  as  now 


208  History  of  Education 

published  of  two  very  substantial  volumes,  is  devoted  to  an 
exposition  of  method,  —  from  the  learning  of  the  alphabet  to 
the  study  of  philosophy,  —  and  an  analysis  of  the  content  of 
literature.  Though  this  contains  the  methods  of  the  best 
Roman  schools  and  was  considered  the  standard  text  in  the 
practical  guidance  of  the  teacher  throughout  the  subsequent 
centuries  of  the  Roman  culture  and  in  the  centuries  of  the 
later  Renaissance,  only  this  enumeration  of  the  general  topics 
discussed  can  be  undertaken  here.1 

Quintilian  was  not  only  the  most  prominent  writer  on 
education  but  the  most  successful  of  Roman  teachers.  He 
was  among  the  rhetors  first  subsidized  by  Vespasian  and  was 
given  the  highest  marks  of  esteem  by  his  contemporaries. 
Though  he  acquired  great  wealth  through  his  teaching,  he 
did  not  claim  that  he  possessed  great  originality  but  rather 
that  in  his  practices,  as  later  in  his  writings,  he  summed  up 
the  best  results  of  the  work  of  his  predecessors.  For  this 
reason  his  treatise  deserves  attention  as  a  summary  of  actual 
conditions  ;  yet  of  conditions  at  their  best. 

Fourth  Period.  Decline  of  Roman  Education.  —  There  can 
be  no  definite  dates  fixed  for  the  delimitation  of  this  period. 
Tacitus,  writing  in  79  A.D.,  complained  in  most  bitter  terms  of 
the  decadence  of  education.  Yet  this  was  the  very  period 
when  Quintilian  was  teaching  and  when  the  emperors  were 
beginning  their  policy  of  fostering  education.  It  is  probable 
that  the  greater  formality  and  artificiality  of  the  education  of 
this  time,  which  from  one  point  of  view  was  a  perfecting  pro- 
cess, was  to  Tacitus  a  decline.  The  substitution  of  this  training 
in  the  rhetorical  "circus,"  as  he  termed  it,  for  the  old  training 
in  broad  citizenship  was  undoubtedly  a  decline  ;  but  in  respect 
to  literary  education  he  probably  wrote  in  the  period  of  its  great- 
est excellence.  The  decadence  in  literary  quality  and  in  the 

1  For  selections  of  those  portions  that  relate  to  education  in  the  school,  see 
Monroe's  Source  Book  of  the  History  of  Education  for  the  Greek  and  Roman 
Period,  Pt.  II,  Ch.  VII. 


The  Romans  zog 

intrinsic  merit  of  this  grammatical  and  rhetorical  training  did 
not  come  until  the  later  part  of  the  third  or  the  early  part  of 
the  fourth  century.  Even  then  this  decay  was  not  marked  by 
any  especial  peculiarities  or  set  off  by  any  particular  events. 
The  educational  conditions  formed  simply  a  part  of  that 
decadence  of  Roman  society  that  constituted  the  essential  fea- 
ture of  the  later  centuries  of  the  empire.  A  brief  statement 
of  some  of  its  characteristics  as  they  affected  education  is  here 
desirable. 

The  Decay  of  Roman  Society.  — Though  the  Emperor  Cara- 
calla  in  212  had  conferred  Roman  citizenship  upon  all  free 
citizens  of  the  empire,  this  distinction  —  ceasing  to  be  an 
honor  highly  prized  —  had  now  become  a  badge  of  servitude 
little  better  than  slavery.  Upon  the  curiales,  or  free  citizens, 
fell  all  the  burden  of  the  support  of  the  municipal  government, 
with  its  maintenance  of  the  army  and  much  of  the  support  of 
the  imperial  government.  The  legislation  of  the  empire, 
formerly  directed  largely  to  the  definition  of  the  rights  of 
the  freeman  and  of  the  privileges  of  property,  was  now 
largely  devoted  to  the  prevention  of  the  escape  of  the  cu- 
rial  from  his  inherited  honor,  —  the  freedom  of  the  empire. 
Attempting  to  escape  these  insupportable  obligations  and 
oppressions,  he  sought  relief  in  the  army,  among  the  ranks 
of  the  barbarian  hordes,  among  the  ranks  of  the  serfs  upon 
the  senatorial  estates,  in  the  monasteries  of  the  Church — and 
from  each  he  was  sought  out  by  the  imperial  officers.  The 
greatest  punishment  that  could  be  inflicted  for  this  or  any 
other  offense  was  the  degradation  to  his  original  position 
as  a  curial,  —  a  free  Roman  citizen,  —  since  when  so  enforced 
he  had  again  to  go  through  all  the  years  of  governmental 
servitude  that  might  in  the  end  afford  his  escape  into  the 
privileged  classes.  To  many  the  profession  of  teaching 
offered  a  means  of  escape  —  as  to  the  great  Augustine  him- 
self ;  to  others  the  clerical  office  of  the  Christian  Church 
offered  a  similar  escape,  for  at  this  time  the  great  privileges 


2io  History  of  Education 

of  the  Church  originated.  Many  found  escape  only  in  com 
plete  renunciation  of  all  these  goods  or  in  suicide.  Thus  low 
had  sunk  that  privilege  which  a  few  centuries  earlier  had  been 
considered  the  greatest  boon  to  be  acquired  by  man. 

Whence  had  come  this  decline  ?  It  is  not  far  to  seek.  A 
monarchy  that  had  centralized  into  an  absolute  despotism  with 
perfect  machinery  for  carrying  out  its  will  and  extracting  the 
wealth  of  the  people ;  an  official  class  corrupt  beyond  meas- 
ure and  openly  defiant  of  imperial  authority;  a  judiciary 
open  to  bribery;  a  horde  of  military  officers  that  exacted 
both  taxes  and  provender  in  kind  for  the  support  of  a  huge 
standing  army,  and  whose  will  was  law  even  with  the 
emperors  ;  tax  officials  that  not  only  oppressed  but  defrauded 
the  curiales,  so  that  often  the  assessments  had  to  be  paid  twice 
or  thrice  over ;  and,  above  all,  an  aristocracy,  large  in  number, 
supremely  selfish,  extravagant,  corrupt  in  all  financial  and 
economic  dealings,  and,  so  far  as  the  Italian  and  African 
provinces  were  concerned,  immoral  beyond  description  and 
everywhere  indifferent  to  the  needs  and  the  rights  of  the 
common  people,  —  such  were  the  causes  of  this  decline.  In  a 
word,  the  decay  of  Rome  was  primarily  political  and  economic. 
So  flagrant  were  these  abuses  that  the  emperors  frequently 
suspended  the  collection  of  supplies  from  entire  districts, 
exempted  whole  provinces  from  taxation,  or  even  in  some 
instances  suspended  in  a  province  the  right  of  collection  of 
legal  private  debts.  Between  these  millstones  of  extortion 
and  exemption  the  middle  class  was  ground  :  the  rural  classes 
became  less  and  less  numerous,  until  a  large  portion  of  the 
Italian  lands  was  depopulated ;  those  remaining  had  to  bear 
the  increased  burden  and  hence  became  poorer  and  poorer. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  senatorial  class,  who  now  possessed  no 
senatorial  functions  and  of  whom  but  a  small  portion  ever  saw 
the  city  of  Rome,  was  augmented  by  great  numbers  that 
through  bribery,  through  favoritism  of  imperial  officers, 
through  performance  of  the  multitudinous  obligations  placed 


The  Romans  211 

apon  the  curiales,  through  some  official  service  or  through 
inheritance,  acquired  this  privilege.  Having  lost  all  of  the 
old  Roman  patriotism,  this  class  took  little  or  no  part  in  the 
work  of  the  mercenary  army  and  showed  little  interest  in 
the  wrongs  and  the  sufferings  of  their  less  fortunate  neigh- 
bors, but  devoted  their  lives  to  ease  and  enjoyment,  the  pur- 
suits of  the  higher  pleasures,  including  literature  and  the 
intellectual  enjoyments,  or  to  self-indulgence  and  debauchery. 
Such  education  as  flourished  was  for  the  satisfaction  or  the 
adornment  of  this  class  of  society  alone. 

The  moral  condition  of  society  needs  hardly  to  be  men- 
tioned ;  it  certainly  cannot  be  adequately  described.  Immense 
wealth,  easily  and  dishonestly  gained,  with  few  obligations ; 
great  political  power  and  privileges,  with  few  'duties ;  no 
common  standards  of  moral  conduct,  no  respected  religion, 
—  these  conditions  state  the  situation.  In  place  of  the  old 
Roman  virtues,  some  centuries  of  self-indulgence  and  license 
in  the  imperial  circles  had  been  followed  by  a  similar  course 
of  life  on  the  part  of  the  upper  classes  and  in  almost  all  por- 
tions of  the  empire.  The  numerous  Eastern  religions  had 
added  a  religious  sanction  to  every  tendency  to  vice  and  even 
to  indulgence  in  the  most  depraved  tastes  of  human  nature. 
Such  religious  celebrations  as  in  their  earlier  form  had  at 
least  the  merit  of  naturalness,  simplicity,  and  aesthetic  form, 
degenerated  into  debauchery.  As  is  to  be  noticed  later,  even 
the  Christian  Church  tended  to  decline  to  the  common  stand- 
ard rather  than  attempted  to  elevate  mankind.  As  in  the 
case  of  Grecian  culture  and  Roman  power,  so  here  it  seemed 
that  Roman  lust  was  to  take  captive  its  pure  conqueror,  the 
Christian  Church. 

The  empire  which  the  barbarians  crushed  was  but  a  shell. 
Its  downfall  does  not  need  to  be  explained  as  due  to  the 
undermining  of  patriotism  and  of  devotion  to  the  empire  by 
the  Christian  religion.  Save  in  a  few  notable  and  worthy 
leaders  the  general  indifference  was  more  marked  with  the 


212  History  of  Education 

pagan  aristocracy  than  with  the  leaders  of  the  Christian 
Church  The  task  remains  to  indicate  briefly  the  education 
of  this  decadent  society. 

The  Education  of  the  last  Centuries  of  the  Empire,  —  Subse- 
quent to  the  opening  of  the  fourth  Christian  century,  the 
most  important  contributions  to  Roman  literature  were  made 
by  representatives  of  the  Christian  Church  rather  than  by 
representatives  of  the  old  pagan  culture ;  hence  an  important 
phase  of  the  education  of  this  period  is  treated  of  in  the 
chapter  following.  The  fact  that  much  of  the  intellectual 
strength  and  all  new  interest  and  inspiration  were  drawn  into 
the  Christian  Church  explains  to  a  large  extent  the  character 
of  education  in  these  later  centuries  of  the  empire.  In  this 
period  also*  the  provinces  held  a  more  prominent  position  than 
did  Rome  itself.  In  fact  after  the  removal  of  the  capital  from 
Rome  by  Diocletian  (285-305)  Rome  ceased  to  hold  the 
importance  it  had  previously  had,  until  the  growth  of  the 
Christian  Church  a  few  centuries  later  again  made  it  the  cen- 
ter of  power.  The  education  we  have  to  consider  in  this 
section,  then,  is  that  of  the  old  pagan  society  in  its  declining 
years. 

Structurally  this  education  has  been  described  under  pre- 
vious periods,  for  grammatical  and  rhetorical  schools  spread 
all  over  the  empire.  These  schools  flourished,  especially  in 
Gaul,  but  also  in  Spain  and  the  African  provinces.  At  Mar- 
seilles, said  at  that  time  to  surpass  Athens,  at  Autun,  at 
Treves,  now  made  the  abode  of  emperors,  at  Lyons,  Aries, 
Auvergne,  Vienna,  Narbonne,  and,  above  all,  at  Bordeaux, 
grew  up  very  notable  schools  which,  even  in  the  centuries  of 
darkness  which  followed  the  destruction  of  Roman  society, 
refused  to  give  up  their  traditions  of  classical  culture.  Until 
this  destruction  by  the  barbarians  actually  took  place,  in  the 
sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  there  was  no  decline  in  the 
institutional  side  of  this  education. 

The  limitation  which  most  characterizes  the  decline  is  the 


The  Romans  213 

fact  that  this  education  is  for  the  upper  class  only.  This 
education  is  now  to  be  judged  not  as  the  practical  training 
of  a  whole  people,  but  as  an  adornment  to  a  hollow,  super- 
ficial, usually  corrupt  society ;  not  as  the  expression  of  the 
highest  aims  in  life,  but  as  a  dilettante  interest,  more  often 
still,  as  an  affectation ;  not  as  a  stage  of  development  possible 
for  an  entire  people,  or  at  least  for  individuals  of  any  rank, 
but  as  an  attainment  or  even  badge  of  distinction  of  a  favored 
class.  In  this  condition  it  continues  to  flourish  for  several 
centuries.  As  the  old  political  power  and  opportunity  for 
political  activity  disappeared,  as  the  municipal  government 
became  mere  machinery  for  collecting  taxes,  as  the  army 
became  filled  with  barbarians,  the  upper  class, — the  Roman 
nobility,  —  now  more  numerous  than  ever,  turned  to  the  one 
remaining  feature  of  early  imperial  Rome, — its  culture. 

It  has  been  noted  that  all  originality  departed  from 
Roman  literature  with  the  "  Silver  Age."  After  Tacitus 
(55-120  A.D.),  there  were  no  writers  of  first  rank;  after  Sue- 
tonius (75-160  A.D.),  there  were  few  of  second  rank.  But 
with  the  decline  in  thought  content,  more  and  more  impor- 
tance was  attached  to  form.  A  perfection  of  artificial  form 
foreign  in  spirit  to  the  earlier  "  Golden  Age  "  was  striven  for 
and  attained.  Form  became  everything.  Virgil  and  Horace 
yet  ruled  as  masters  —  not  as  masters  of  poetic  thought  and 
taste,  but  rather  as  masters  of  grammatical  construction,  of 
choice  of  words,  of  style.  Esteemed  along  with  this  perfec- 
tion of  form  there  was  a  dilettant  erudition,  which  com- 
mended the  study  of  the  poets  as  the  sources  of  apt  phrase 
and  of  the  philosophers  as  a  treasury  of  obscure  allusion. 
The  possession  of  this  debased  culture  now  became  the  one 
remaining  distinction  of  the  senatorial  class,  prized  as  were 
their  wealth  and  their  birthrights.  Its  possession  by  any 
person  was  a  mark  of  social  superiority  and  the  most  certain 
means  of  advancement  in  the  imperial  service  or  in  the  pro- 
vincial courts.  The  character  of  this  social  life  is  reflected 


214  History  of  Education 

in  the  literature  and  the  learning  of  the  times.  Servility  and 
flattery  reigned  in  the  places  of  the  great ;  they  in  turn  pros- 
trated themselves  in  Oriental  style  before  the  emperors,  who 
continued  in  Christian  times  to  employ  the  titles  of  deity, 
though  no  longer  daring  to  demand  the  worship  implied. 
So,  too,  there  prevailed  in  literature  abject  imitation,  subjec- 
tion of  all  thought  to  mere  propriety  of  form,  absence  of  all 
originality  either  of  thought  or  style.  An  age  in  which 
schools  flourished  as  never  before  in  earlier  periods  of  Roman 
education,  in  which  the  writer  and  the  teacher  were  esteemed 
and  rewarded  as  never  before,  an  age  with  all  the  parapher- 
nalia of  culture,  it  was  yet  one  in  which  education  did  not 
interest  or  benefit  the  people  or  society  at  large,  —  one  whose 
show  of  erudition  and  mastery  of  pedantic  literary  form  did 
but  make  it  an  object  of  wonder  or  of  ridicule  to  subsequent 
ages. 

These  centuries  were  not  without  many  minor  writers  of 
merit,  and  able  systematizers,  especially  grammarians.  This 
is  especially  true  of  the  fourth  century.  Then  Donatus  (about 
400)  in  the  West  and  Priscian  (about  500)  in  the  East  per- 
fected the  grammatical  analysis  of  the  language  in  text-books 
that  were  tc  remain  the  basis  of  linguistic  study  and  hence 
of  education  until  the  sixteenth  century.  Grammarians  and 
rhetoricians  had  never  been  held  so  high  in  esteem.  Rhetori- 
cians had  followed  the  conquering  Roman  armies  into  Gaul, 
as  do  traders  a  modern  conquest,  and  had  gained  a  hold  upon 
the  Romanized  Celtic  civilization  that  rendered  possible  the 
survival  of  this  culture  in  that  province  after  it  had  disappeared 
elsewhere.  With  the  recrudescence  of  paganism  under  the 
apostate  Emperor  Julian  (361-363)  —  a  revival  in  itself  largely 
inspired  in  the  schools  —  there  occurred  a  revival  of  the 
classical  culture  and  of  schools  that  is  spoken  of  by  histo 
rians  as  a  distinct  renaissance  of  learning.  Because  this 
centered  largely  in  the  revival  of  the  influence  of  Platonism 
and  of  the  school  of  Alexandria,  it  was  largely  Hellenic  in 


The  Romans 

character.  As  has  been  noted  under  the  preceding  topic,  the 
Christian  emperors  continued  their  patronage  of  learning. 
The  Emperor  Gratian,  who  did  so  much  for  education,  exalted 
his  former  tutor  Ausonius  (about  310  to  about  393),  who 
had  been  a  teacher  for  thirty  years,  to  the  prefecture  of  Gaul, 
and  his  son  to  the  prefecture  of  Italy.  After  a  long  and  dis- 
tinguished service  Ausonius  returned  to  the  student  life  and 
through  his  example  added  materially  to  the  esteem  in  which 
the  teaching  profession  and  the  literary  life  was  held  in  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  His  pupil,  Paulinus,  also  a  gram- 
marian and  poet,  was  made  consul  and  governor  of  a  prov- 
ince ;  and  another  pupil,  Symmachus,  even  more  noted  as  a 
rhetorician  and  poet,  was  made  consul  and  prefect  at  Rome. 
What  the  family  of  Ausonius  did  for  this  exaltation  of 
learning  was  approximated  in  many  more  modest  circles  by 
rhetoricians,  grammarians,  and  poets. 

Thus  the  pagan  culture,  though  but  the  form  without  the 
essence,  retained  its  hold  upon  the  educated  classes  until  the 
destruction  of  Roman  society  by  the  barbarians  in  the  sixth 
century.  While  most  of  this  senatorial  class,  including  men 
like  Ausonius,  were  nominally  Christian,  at  heart  and  in  their 
philosophy  of  life  they  were  really  pagan  in  the  best  Roman 
form  of  paganism.  With  alarm  and  disdain  they  witnessed 
the  desertion  of  friends  to  the  more  extreme  form  of  Chris- 
tian views  then  advocated  by  the  devotees  of  the  monastic 
life.  The  monastic  ideal  was  in  truth  the  complete  negation 
of  the  pagan  view  of  life,  as  the  nominal  life  in  the  Christian 
Church  had  ceased  to  be. 

One  further  characteristic  of  the  educational  activity  of 
these  centuries  needs  to  be  noted,  — the  work  of  the  schools. 
One  peculiar  feature  of  these  later  revivals  of  classical  learn- 
ing had  been  the  growth  of  a  class  of  wandering  lecturers, 
similar  to  the  early  sophists  of  Greece.  The  sophists  of  this 
period,  however,  excelled  merely  in  formal  speech,  not  profess- 
ing to  instruct  so  much  as  to  entertain.  Describing  this,  to  us 


216  History  of  Education 

almost  incomprehensible  laudation  of  a  speaker  whose  abil- 
ity was  only  that  of  bombastic  superficiality,  Professor  Dill 
remarks :  — 

"  If  he  was  a  man  of  reputation  in  his  art,  people  rushed 
to  hear  him  declaim,  as  they  will  do  in  our  times  to  hear  a 
great  singer,  or  actor,  or  popular  preacher.  Provincial 
governors,  on  a  progress  through  a  district,  would  relieve  the 
tedium  of  official  duties  by  commanding  a  display  of  word- 
fence  or  declamation  by  such  a  master  as  Proaeresius,  reward 
him  with  the  most  ecstatic  applause  and  conduct  him  home 
in  state  after  the  performance.  ...  In  the  last  years  of  the 
fourth  century,  at  a  time  of  great  events  and  momentous 
changes,  Symmachus,  when  writing  to  Ausonius,  finds  the 
only  interesting  subject  at  hand  to  be  a  rhetorical  display 
which  a  rhetorician  named  Palladius  had  just  given  at  a 
fashionable  gathering ;  and  words  almost  fail  to  express  the 
admiration  of  that  ordinarily  calm  and  dignified  senator  for 
the  performance.  It  is  singular  that  a  man,  who  could  him- 
self speak  with  great  effect  on  a  serious  occasion  in  the 
senate,  or  before  the  Emperor,  should  be  so  carried  away  by 
an  unreal  exhibition  of  school  rhetoric.  But  the  fact  remains 
that  this  power  of  using  words  for  mere  pleasurable  effect, 
on  the  most  trivial  or  the  most  extravagantly  absurd  themes, 
was  for  many  ages  in  both  west  and  east,  esteemed  the 
highest  proof  of  talent  and  cultivation." 

Such  being  the  ideal,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  that  the 
work  of  the  schools  was  of  the  most  formal,  artificial  and,  so 
far  as  any  real  social  value  is  concerned,  ineffectual  char- 
acter. The  study  of  philosophy  had  disappeared  altogether 
from  the  schools  and  found  but  few  devotees  among  the 
cultured,  and  here,  too,  merely  for  a  show  of  learning.  Ex- 
cept in  Rome,  even  law  attracted  but  slight  attention  in  these 
Western  schools ;  in  the  school  at  Bordeaux,  the  most  promi- 
nent during  these  later  centuries  of  all  these  schools  of  the 
empire,  only  grammar  and  rhetoric  were  taught.  Grammar, 
it  is  true,  included  literary  appreciation  and  study  of  content 
is  well  as  form;  and  the  most  prominent  grammarians,  ac 


The  Romans  217 

evidenced  by  some  of  the  more  important  works  of  the  times, 
possessed  a  knowledge  of  all  the  preliminary  sciences  de- 
manded of  the  orator  by  Quintilian.  For  the  most  part, 
however,  this  learning  was  mere  antiquarianism  and  degener- 
ated as  did  the  literature  of  the  times  into  mere  trifling.  The 
study  of  Vergil  so  dominated  in  these  schools,  that  here  was 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  practice  of  the  Middle  Ages  of 
identifying  all  classical  learning  with  the  cult  of  Vergil.  But 
it  was  rather  Vergil  analyzed  and  dissected,  than  Vergil 
appreciated  and  enjoyed. 

If  this  was  the  degenerate  state  of  the  study  of  grammar 
and  literature,  that  of  rhetoric  was  even  worse.  No  longer 
connected  with  real  life,  in  the  school  or  out,  no  longer  a 
public  function  in  the  courts,  senate,  or  curial  assemblies,  it 
had  degenerated  into  a  mere  display  in  the  theater,  in  the 
school,  or  before  the  private  audience.  As  an  art  it  depended 
upon  an  abundant  vocabulary,  a  glibness  of  tongue,  and  the 
mastery  of  the  mannerisms  of  the  stage.  Like  the  older 
sophists  these  later  rhetoricians  boasted  their  ability  to  speak 
with  equal  effectiveness  on  either  side  of  any  proposition  and 
aspired  but  to  clothe  the  most  common  event  in  gorgeous 
verbiage,  or  to  dress  out  a  trivial  or  hackneyed  thought  in  the 
greatest  variety  of  ways. 

Such  ideals  of  culture  stopped  all  progress.  If  the  Hellen- 
ized  Roman  education  ever  possessed  any  of  the  liberalizing 
tendencies  that  it  did  with  the  Greeks,  it  had  long  since  lost 
all  of  them.  The  practical  merits  of  Roman  education  had 
disappeared  quite  as  completely.  Down  to  the  close  of  the 
sixth  century  these  schools  existed  throughout  the  European 
provinces  and  gave  to  the  early  Church  in  that  region  a  formal 
training  in  the  culture  of  pagan  society.  This  service  was 
performed  for  provincial  converts  and  even  for  the  youth 
of  the  early  Teutonic  invaders,  especially  those  of  the  Goths 
who  remained  permanently  on  the  soil  of  Gaul.  Such  in- 
stances, however,  were  so  infrequent  as  to  be  of  little  effect, 


218  History  of  Education 

and  the  schools,  unable  to  stand  the  evils  of  indifference  and 
barbarian  hostility  as  well  as  of  hollow  formality,  became 
extinct. 

Such  being  the  character  of  the  pagan  culture  in  its 
senility,  let  us  turn  to  a  consideration  of  Christian  culture  in 
its  infancy. 

REFERENCES 

Becker,  Callus,  Scene  III.     (London,  1844.) 

Clark,  The  Education  of  Children  at  Rome.     (New  York,  1896.) 

Davidson,  The  Education  of  the  Greek  People,  Ch.  IX. 

Davidson,  Aristotle  and  the  Ancient  Educational  Ideal*  Bk.  IV,  Ch.  II. 

Dill,  Roman  Society  in  the  Last  Century  of  the  Western  Empire,  Bk.  V, 

Ch.  I.     (London,  1899.) 
Hobhouse,  Ancient  Education. 

Laurie,  Historical  Survey  of  Pre-Christian  Education,  pp.  301-411. 
Mahaffy,  The  Greek  World  Under  Roman  Sway.     (London,  1890.) 
Monroe,  Source  Book  in  the  History  of  Education,  Pt.  II. 
Quintilian,  Institutes  of  Oratory,  esp.  Bk.  I,  Chs.  I  and  II. 
Sandys,  History  of  Classical  Education  from  the  Sixth  Century  B.C.  to  tht 

end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Chs.  X-XXIII  inclusive.     (Cambridge,  1903.) 
Thomas,  Roman  Life  Under  the  Ccesars,  Ch.  IX.     (New  York,  1899.) 


TOPICAL  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  STUDY 

I.  What  contrasts  are  offered  between  the  concrete  virtues  of  the  Roman 

and  those  of  the  Greek,  as  indicated  in  their  early  literature? 
?.  To  what  extent  does  Roman  education  indicate  the  value  of  biography 
in  education? 

3.  To  what  extent  does  Roman  education  illustrate  the  function  and  the 
importance  of  the  parent  in  education? 

4.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  Roman  and  the  Greek  use  of 
gymnastics  in  education? 

5.  Was  the  conception  of  an  orator,  as  expounded  by  Cicero,  Tacitus, 
and  Quintilian,  a  sufficiently  broad  educational  ideal  for  society  in  the 
imperial  period? 

6.  What  concrete  details  concerning  the  work  of  the  rhetorical  schools 
can  be  found  in  the  writings  of  these  same  authors? 


The  Romans  219 

7.  To  what  extent  did  the  adopted  use  of  the  Greek  literary  education 
afford  to  the  Romans  a  liberal  education,  after  the  Greek  idea? 

8.  To  what  extent  is  the  old  Roman  education  described  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  Thoughts  of  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus  ? 

9.  To  what  extent  do  present  practices  and  beliefs  justify  Quintilian's 
views   concerning  methods   of  teaching  reading,   methods   of   studying 
grammar  and  literature,  and  his  conception  of  the  nature  and  educational 
funct'on  of  these  two  subjects? 


CHRONOLOGICAL  SURVEY  OF  MEDIEVAL  EDUCATION.    476-1300  A.D. 


POLITICAL 

WRITERS, 

CHURCHMEN  AND 

EDUCATIONAL 

EDUCATIONAL 

EVENTS 

SCHOOLMEN,  ETC. 

ECCLESIASTICAL 
EVENTS 

WRITINGS 

EVENTS 

"  Fall  "  of 

Boethius   c.  480-524 

St.  Benedict  480-543 

Benedict's 

Monte  Cassino 

Rome  .    .    .  476 

Cassiodorus 

Franks 

Rules 

founded     .     .  529 

Odoacer  .     .     .  476 

c  .  480-575 

converted  .     .  496 

Boethius, 

Cassiodorus  founds 

Theodoric    .     .  493 
Tothila   .     541-542 

Gregory  of 
Tours     c.  538-594 

Gregory  I  c.  540-604 
Mohammed  b.  572 

Consolations, 
Translations 

monastery     .  540 
Christian  era  first 

Justinian     .     .  527 

Isidore  of 

Columban  .  540-615 

of  A  ristotle. 

used  for 

The  empire 
reunited    .     .  565 

Seville    c.  570-636 
Venerable 

Hegira  of 
Mohammed  .  622 

Cassiodorus, 
Institutes 

dating  .     .     .  526 
St.  Gall  founded  614 

Arab  conquest 
of  Spain   .     .  714 

Bede  .     .  673-735 
Alcuin  .     .  735-804 

Conference  at 
Whitby     .     .  664 

of  Sacred 
Literature 

Reichenau  f.     .  724 
Fulda  founded  .  744 

Karl  M  artel  defeats 

Paulus 

Boniface  converts 

Gregory  of 

Alcuin  called  to 

Saracens  .     .  732 

Diaconus  725-797 

the  Germans 

To         * 
ours, 

Frankland     .  781 

Carolingian  line  752 

721-754 

Chron. 

Karl's  Cafitularits 

End  of  Lombard 

Last  council  recog- 

Isidore, 

on  ed.    787  et  stq. 

kingdom  .     .  774 

nized  by  Eastern 

Etymologies 

Alcuin,  Abbot  of 

Charlemagne 

and  Western 

Bede,  Chron. 

Tours   .     794-804 

772-814 

churches   .     .  787 

Alcuin, 

Leo  III  .       795-817 

On  Seven 

Liberal 

800  A.D. 

A  rts,  etc. 

Carolingian  Empire 

Einhard      .  770-840 

Conversion  of 

Rabanus 

Division  of 

founded    .     .  800 

Rabanus 

Saxons.     .     .  804 

Maurus, 

Monastic  Schools 

Charles  the 

Maurus  .  776-856 

Separation  of 

Education 

into  interns  and 

Bald     .     840-877 

John  Scotus  810  875 

Eastern  and 

of  the 

externs      .     .  817 

Treaty  Verdun   843 

Walafred 

Western 

Clergy 

Hirschau 

Alfred     .     871-901 

Strabo     .  809-849 

churches   .     .  822 

Walafred 

founded     .     .  830 

Henry  of 
Saxony     919-936 

Avicenna     980-1037 
Anselm  .    1033-1109 

Clugny  founded  910 
First  Crusade     1095 

Strabo, 
Biography 

Oath  of  Strassburg, 
earliest  form  of 

Otho  .     .     936-973 

Roscellinus 

Sylvester  II 

Anselm  and 

German  and 

Holy  Roman  Em- 

c. 1050-1121 

(Gerbert) 

Roscellinus 

French 

pire  founded    962 

999-1003 

begin 

language  .     .  841 

Otho  III  .  996-1002 

Cistercians 

scholastic 

Salerno     .  fl.  c.  1050 

Caliphate  of 

founded     .      1098 

controversy 

Anselm,  Abbot  of 

Cordova  929-1031 

Knights  of  St.  John 

Canterbury 

Capetian  line    .  987 

founded     .      1099 

1003  1109 

Norman  conq.   1066 

William  of 

Canossa  .     .      1077 

Champeaux 

IIOO  A  D. 

d.  1  121 

Consular  govern- 

Bernard     .    </.  1153 

Knights  Templars 

Abelard, 

Irnerius  at 

ment  in  Italian 

Abelard      1079-1142 

founded     .      1119 

Sic  et  Non, 

Bologna    .      1113 

cities    .      fl.  noo 

Hugo  St.  Victor 

Second  Crusade 

etc. 

Trans,  from  Arabic 

Arnold  of 

c.  1097-1142 

1147 

Hugo  of 

under  Raymond  of 

Brescia  1100-1155 

Richard 

Murder  of 

St.  Victor, 

Toledo    1  1  30-  1  1  5  o 

Frederick  Bar- 

St.  Victor   d.  1173 

£  Becket    .      1170 

On 

U.  of  Paris  .  c.  1160 

barossa  1152-1190 

John  of  Salis- 

Innocent III 

Instruction 

Aristotle's  Physics 

Henry  II  of 

bury  .    1110-1180 

1198-1216 

John  of 

proscribed  at 

England    1154-84 

Peter  of  Blois 

Peter  the  Venerable 

Salisbury, 

Paris     .     .      1210 

Philip  II  of 

1135-1204 

d.  1156 

Metaiogicus 

Metaphysics 

France  1180-1223 

Albertus  Magnus 

Albigensian 

Waller  Map, 

proscribed    .  1215 

Treaty  of 

1103-1280 

Crusade    .      1208 

Latin 

Frederick  II  sends 

Constance      1183 

Walter  Map 

Franciscans 

Students' 

trans,  of  Aris.  to 

Fall  of 

c.  1140-1210 

founded     .      1210 

Songs 

Bol.and  Paris  1220 

Constantinople 

Averroes    1126-1198 

Dominicans 

Alexander 

N  iebelungenlied 

to  Crusaders  1204 

Alex.  Hales  d.  1245 

founded     .      1215 

de  Villc- 

C  .  1220 

Frederick  II 

Grosseteste 

Crusade  of 

dieu, 

Epic  poetry  in 

1208-1250 

1175-1253 

St.  Louis  .      1270 

Grammar 

Ger.  and  France 

Magna  Charta  1215 

Bonaventura 

Christians 

c  .  1200-1250 

End  of  Hohen- 

1221-1274 

expelled  from 

Dominicans  at 

staufen  line    1254 

Th  Aquinas  1221-74 

Palestine  .      1291 

Paris     .     .      1217 

Louis  IX  of 

Waller  von  der 

Boniface    1294-1303 

Franciscans  at 

France      1226-70 

Vogelweide  fl.  1230 

Paris     .     .      1230 

Latin  Empire  in 

Alexander  de  Ville- 

U.  of  Padua    .  1222 

East  falls     .  1261 

dieu    .     .    d.  1240 

U.  of  Naples  .  1224 

Hapsburg  line 

Vincent  de  Beauvais 

U.  of  Salamanca  1243 

begins  .     .      1273 

d.  1264 

U.  Col.  Oxford  1249 

Model 

Roger  Bacon 

Peterhousc, 

Parliament     1295 

1214-1294 

Cambridge      1284 

Raymond  Lull 

Aristotle  again  stud. 

1300  A.D. 

1235  1315 

at  Paris        .   1255 

CHAPTER  V 
MIDDLE  AGES:    EDUCATION   AS  DISCIPLINE 

§    I.     EARLY    CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 

CHRISTIANITY  IN  CONTACT  WITH  THE  WORLD  OF 
THOUGHT.  —  In  order  to  understand  the  attitude  of  the  early 
Church  to  education,  and  the  conception  of  education  that 
developed  from  these  early  conditions  and  prevailed  through- 
out the  Middle  Ages,  it  is  necessary  to  have  in  mind  some  of 
the  characteristics  of  the  thought  life  and  of  the  concrete 
social  activities  of  the  pagan  life  surrounding  the  early  Church. 
Into  the  life  of  Greek  culture  and  intellectual  activity  of  the 
cosmopolitan  period,  modified,  supplemented,  and  extended 
as  it  had  been  through  adoption  by  the  Romans,  and  into  the 
life  of  Roman  activity  at  its  height  of  power,  though  past  its 
prime  in  vigor  and  positive  virtues,  Christianity  was  intro- 
duced in  the  first  century,  to  spread  with  great  rapidity,  to 
modify  this  foreign  world  both  in  regard  to  thought  and  to 
conduct,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  be  itself  profoundly  modi- 
fied as  well. 

The  Greek  mind  had  developed  a  versatility  that  probably 
has  never  been  equaled,  a  power  of  dealing  with  abstract 
thought  and  an  interest  in  philosophical  questions  that  is  as 
remote  from  the  interests  of  society  at  large  to-day  as  it  was  in 
ages  preceding  the  time  under  consideration.  Schools  were 
very  numerous  and  flourishing  in  both  the  East  and  the  West ; 
culture  had  never  been  so  disseminated,  nor  the  intellectual 
life  so  fostered.  In  very  many  points  indeed,  it  can  be  shown 

221 


222  History  of  Education 

that  Christianity  was  influenced  and  modified  by  this  solvent 
of  Greek  thought.  These  changes  are,  however,  of  more 
interest  in  Church  history  ;  here  only  a  few  points  of  contact 
can  be  indicated  as  of  vital  importance  in  the  history  of 
education. 

Christian  vs.  Greek  Solution  of  the  Problem  of  the  Individ- 
ual and  Society. — The  highest  reach  of  pagan  thought,  its  solu 
tion  of  the  problem  of  the  individual  and  society,  was  in  the 
thought  of  Aristotle  that  found  the  perfection  of  the  one  and 
conserved  the  welfare  of  the  many  in  well  being  and  well  doing 
(pp.  148-150).  The  solutions  offered  by  Plato,  Aristotle,  and 
by  the  various  schools  of  thought  found  their  ideals  in  the 
intellectual  nature  of  man  and  were  necessarily  aristocratic 
since  possible  only  to  the  few.  Opposed  to  this,  Christianity 
offered  its  solution  found  in  the  moral  nature  of  man  which, 
since  it  is  common  to  all  alike,  was  universal  in  its  applica- 
tion. It  was  in  no  ideal  of  immediate  happiness  or  of  any 
activity  of  the  rational  nature  that  Christianity  discovered  its 
solution  of  the  world  problem.  It  was  in  the  idea  of  Christian 
charity  or  love, — that  expression  of  personality  which  is  most 
individual  and  most  complete,  and  which  at  the  same  time 
from  its  very  nature  finds  its  expression  in  objects  or  person- 
alities external  to  itself.  Thus  in  the  moral  nature,  which 
pagan  religion  had  so  slightly  affected  and  which  Greek  phi- 
losophy had  but  dimly  apprehended,  a  new  basis  of  life  was 
found  and  a  new  solution  of  the  fundamental  educational  as 
well  as  ethical  problem  was  secured.  However  different  in 
its  solution,  the  problem  stated  and  the  general  principle 
sought  were  so  identified  with  that  of  the  highest  thought  of 
the  pagan  schools  that  a  community  of  interest  was  immedi- 
ately discovered,  and  a  fusion  of  Greek  philosophical  thought 
and  Christian  teaching  was  attempted.  The  unknown  god 
that  the  Apostle  declared  unto  the  Athenians  was  but  a  symbol 
of  this  declaration  of  the  hitherto  unknown  truth  for  which 
the  Greek  thinkers  for  generations  had  been  groping. 


Middle  Ages  223 

Points  of  Conflict  between  Greek  and  Christian  Thought.  — 
Though  there  was  this  one  point  of  contact  of  fundamental 
importance,  there  were  divergencies  too  great  to  be  bridged 
without  compromises  on  both  sides.  The  intellectual  and 
aesthetic  elements  so  essential  to  the  Greek  ideal,  were  wholly 
wanting  in  the  opinions  of  the  early  Christian  teachers.  This 
led  to  an  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  Christians  to  those 
features  and  characteristics  of  the  Greek  and  the  Greco- 
Roman  education  and  culture.  Further  strengthened  by  the 
fact  that  Christianity  offered  the  greatest  boon  to  classes 
wholly  neglected  in  the  economy  of  pagan  society  and  Gre- 
cian culture,  and  by  the  additional  fact  that  paganism  found 
its  strongest  intrenchment  for  resistance  against  conquest 
by  the  new  religion  in  its  literature,  its  culture,  and  its 
schools,  there  grew  up  in  time  a  general  hostility  between 
Hellenistic  culture  and  Christianity  that  had  not  at  first  been 
evident.  Especially  when  the  old  culture  had  degenerated 
into  a  mere  form  without  the  vivifying  principle  of  the  real 
search  for  truth  that  had  characterized  the  early  Greek  phi- 
losophers or  the  later  Stoics  at  Rome,  Hellenism  became 
identified  with  paganism. 

Influence  of  Greek  Thought  upon  Christianity.  —  The  extent 
to  which  Christianity  was  influenced  in  its  thought  life  by 
Grecian  intellectualism  is  evidenced  by  the  growth  of  her- 
esies,—  many  of  which  were  attempts  to  interpret  Christian 
teachings  in  the  light  of  the  varying  schools  of  Greek 
philosophy,  —  and  in  the  formation  of  the  orthodox  Christian 
creed  as  well.  Contrasting  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  with 
the  Nicene  Creed  (A.D.  325)  one  sees  at  a  glance  the  differ- 
ence between  Christianity  in  Semitic  form,  and  Christianity 
when  cast  in  Grecian  mold.  This  influence  of  the  Grecian 
thought  world  on  early  Christianity  can  be  seen  in  various 
aspects.  Contrast,  for  instance,  the  methods  of  teaching. 
In  the  Grecian  schools  the  method  was  that  of  formal  selec- 
tion of  a  theme  or  texts  from  the  teaching  of  a  philosophical 


224  History  of  Education 

school,  of  logical  analysis,  of  careful  choice  of  words,  of  dis 
crimination  in  phrases  and  fine  shades  of  meaning,  and  of 
formal  delivery ;  the  method  of  the  Hebrew  synagogue  was 
that  of  informal  comment  and  exposition ;  the  method  of 
instruction  of  the  early  Christian  Church  was  that  of  prophe- 
sying or  impromptu  exposition  and  exhortation.  In  a  similar 
manner  the  allegorical  method  of  interpretation  so  long  in 
vogue  among  the  Greek  philosophers  in  the  explanation  of 
their  literature,  whereby  trivial,  irrational,  or  immoral  acts 
were  given  a  moral  or  rational  meaning,  was  adopted  by  the 
Jews,  under  the  leadership  of  Philo,  in  the  justification  of  the 
Old  Testament  to  Greek  thought.  Finally  this  same  method 
was  adopted  by  the  Christian  teachers,  and  the  Church  sub- 
sequently imposed  these  interpretations  upon  coming  genera- 
tions as  a  test  of  orthodoxy. 

Influence  of  Roman  Thought.  —  The  point  of  contact  be- 
tween Christianity  and  the  Roman  thought  world  was  found  in 
its  relation  to  the  Stoic  philosophy.  Peculiarly  appropriate 
to  the  Roman  character,  and  prepared  for  by  all  of  their 
early  historic  experience,  the  Stoic  philosophy,  as  formulated 
by  a  few  leading  exponents  among  the  Romans  and  held  by 
a  large  and  saving  element  among  the  better  members  of 
society,  expressed  the  highest  attainment  in  moral  thought 
reached  by  the  ancients.  According  to  this  philosophy,  virtue 
in  itself  was  made  the  highest  pleasure  attainable.  Conscience 
was  exalted  into  the  rule  of  life ;  good  deeds,  charity,  and 
sympathy  for  the  less  fortunate  were  commanded  not  on  the 
score  of  ostentation  or  for  the  approval  of  man,  but  because 
such  actions  were  a  duty.  Duty,  in  its  legal,  institutional, 
and  parental  form  had  always  been  exalted  by  the  Romans 
as  the  highest  expression  of  their  moral  life ;  they  now  found 
in  the  philosophical  formulation  of  this  ethical  truth  the 
highest  expression  of  their  cosmopolitan  life  and  of  their  world 
empire.  This  represents  the  perfection  of  pagan  philosophy 
in  its  ethical  bearing.  Conscience  was  deified  into  the  sole 


Middle  Ages  225 

arbiter  of  life;  for  in  the  Stoic  philosophy  of  the  Romans, 
though  it  was  otherwise  with  earlier  teachings  of  the  Grecian 
Stoics,  there  is  no  firm  belief  in  a  life  after  death,  and  little 
attempt  to  connect  the  duties  of  this  life  with  any  rewards 
and  punishments  in  the  hereafter.  Says  one  of  these  teachers: 
"  The  wise  man  will  not  sin,  though  both  gods  and  men  should 
overlook  the  deed,  for  it  is  not  through  the  fear  of  punish- 
ment or  of  shame  that  he  abstains  from  sin.  It  is  from  the 
desire  and  obligation  of  what  is  just  and  good." 

It  is  a  striking  fact  that  as  it  nears  the  period  of  the 
ascendency  of  Christianity,  pagan  philosophy,  as  illustrated 
by  Seneca,  Epictetus,  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  directs  its  atten- 
tion more  and  more  to  the  attempt  to  influence  the  conduct 
of  men  through  ethical  teachings,  in  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  this  was  the  supreme  need  of  the  time.  In  this,  again, 
Christianity  had  one  great  feature  in  common  with  the 
thought  life  of  the  times.  Yet  the  differences  here  were  very 
great.  Both  aimed  to  regulate  the  life  of  society,  or  at  least 
the  daily  conduct  of  the  individual,  so  as  to  secure  the  happi- 
ness, immediate  or  ultimate,  of  the  individual  and  the  secur- 
ity and  stability  of  society.  But  while  it  aimed  at  the 
regeneration  of  society,  philosophy  could  affect  only  a  few. 
Attached,  as  they  were,  to  the  great  families  of  Rome  in  the 
capacity  of  moral  advisers,  the  minor  Stoics  would  seem  to 
be  in  a  position  to  exercise  an  influence,  great  though  limited 
to  a  class.  Their  position,  however,  was  little  above  that  of 
a  menial  one ;  for  the  patronage  extended  to  them  was  quite 
as  much  an  ostentatious  display  of  power  as  was  that  shown 
to  the  court  scholar  during  the  Renaissance,  while  the  ease 
and  influence  attaching  to  the  position  called  forth  a  great 
number  of  impostors,  greedy  of  wealth  and  given  over  to  the 
gratification  of  every  whim  and  passion. 

Limitations  of  Stoicism  and  Other  Pagan  Philosophies.  — 
The  reason  for  the  slight  extent  of  the  influence  of  Stoicism 
compared  with  that  of  Christianity  is  to  be  seen  on  the  very 


226  History  of  Education 

surface.  Both  exalted  virtue ;  but  while  virtue  to  the  Stoic 
was  to  be  obtained  only  through  the  development  of  reason, 
Christianity  would  obtain  the  same  result  through  the  emo- 
tional nature.  The  virtue  of  the  Stoics  could  be  obtained 
only  by  the  few  in  whom  the  intellect  was  developed  and  the 
rational  nature  controlled ;  Christianity  rendered  the  attain- 
ment to  virtue  a  possibility  for  all.  It  appealed  to  emotions 
that  were  universal ;  to  that  which  was  noble,  to  the  affection 
for  an  ideal  human  character  that  in  itself  is  an  expression 
of  the  divine,  to  sympathy  for  fellow-men,  to  fear  of  eternal 
retribution,  and  to  the  entire  gamut  of  human  feelings. 

This  limitation  of  Stoicism  was  a  limitation  of  all  ancient 
philosophy.  The  quotation  given  on  page  152  shows  that 
even  Aristotle  clearly  recognized  this  fact  in  his  own  philoso- 
phy. The  appeal  of  Stoicism  could  be  made  only  to  minds 
already  noble.  It  affected  but  a  limited  few  in  society,  and 
those  of  the  best.  However  nearly  its  ethical  teachings  ap- 
proximated Christianity,  there  was  no  similarity  in  the  extent 
of  its  influence,  and  hence  in  its  educational  character.  The 
ancient  philosophy  did  very  little  to  improve  mankind,  to 
regenerate  the  society  of  the  times.  Unless,  as  in  the  im- 
possible scheme  of  Plato,  philosophers  should  be  kings,  it 
could  do  nothing  to  check  vice  among  men  and  evil  in 
society. 

If  philosophy  did  little  to  check  vice  and  gave  an  ethical 
creed  to  but  the  intellectual  few,  the  religion  of  pagan  society 
did  far  less  to  effect  any  moral  improvement  in  life.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  religions  of  the  ancients  had  little  influ- 
ence on  morality.  The  grosser  forms  of  Asiatic  religions 
were  but  the  cloaking  of  every  human  instinct  and  passion, 
even  the  grossest,  under  the  guise  of  worship.  That  of  the 
Greeks  was  a  refinement  upon  these  through  its  clothing 
of  aesthetic  form  and  later  through  its  content  of  philo- 
sophical truth.  But  the  polytheism  of  the  Greeks  had  long 
ceased  to  have  any  influence  on  the  lives  of  thinking  men ; 


Middle  Ages  227 

among  the  multitude  it  was  little  less  than  a  subject  for 
jeering.  The  ethical  teachings  of  the  Greeks  were  embodied 
in  the  writings  of  the  dramatists  and  the  philosophers. 
Of  the  latter,  Plato  most  conspicuously  took  a  position  of 
open  hostility  to  the  Homeric  and  other  early  poetry  em- 
bodying their  mythology.  The  later  philosophers  inclined, 
on  the  one  hand  with  the  Epicureans,  to  the  view  that 
the  gods  were  wholly  indifferent  to  human  affairs ;  and 
on  the  other  with  the  Stoics,  to  the  making  of  a  clear  dis- 
tinction between  the  popular  gods  of  their  mythology  and 
the  one  god  of  nature,  possessing  personality  and  exercising 
a  providential  care  over  man.  The  old  Roman  religion  had 
fostered  many  social  and  individual  virtues,  which  in  this 
latter  period,  however,  had  lost  all  of  this  beneficial  influence 
save  on  activities  of  a  political  and  legal  nature.  As  the 
Roman  religion  culminated  in  the  deification  of  the  emperors, 
who  more  often  than  not  were  the  very  embodiment  of  vice, 
the  absurdity  of  this  political  religion  became  apparent  to  all. 
Though  the  religion  of  divination  and  of  oracles  persisted 
until  after  the  conversion  of  the  empire,  it  had  long  been 
scoffed  at  as  mere  fabrications  for  the  unintelligent.  Even  as 
early  as  the  second  century  B.C.,  Cato  had  wondered  that 
two  augurs  could  meet  with  sober  countenances.  Neither 
religions  nor  philosophies  had  taught  any  doctrines  concern- 
ing the  future  life,  and  consequently  had  no  means  of  enforc- 
ing any  moral  teaching  upon  the  unintelligent  masses. 

Effects  of  Christianity  upon  the  Thought  Life.  —  The  con- 
tact of  Christianity  with  this  thought  world  had  great  results. 
Religion  became  disassociated  from  the  state  and  ethics  from 
philosophy  :  in  religion,  ethics  and  morality  were  given  a 
new  basis  and  a  hold,  altogether  unprecedented,  upon  the 
masses  of  mankind.  With  this  reassociation  of  religion, 
ethics,  and  politics,  there  came  other  readjustments  of  vital 
interest  to  education.  Religion  lost  its  previous  relationship 
to  aesthetic  culture  and  to  literature,  philosophy  its  intimate 


228  History  of  Education 

connection  with  the  practical  life  through  ethics.  For  man) 
centuries  education  took  upon  itself  a  moral  and  religious 
character  to  the  neglect  of  the  aesthetic  and  intellectual 
phases  so  essential  to  the  education  of  the  classical  world. 

CONTACT  OF  CHRISTIANITY  WITH  THE  WORLD  OF 
ACTION.  —  Some  of  the  leading  political  and  moral  char- 
acteristics  of  Roman  imperial  society,  as  these  bore  upon  the 
formation  of  classes  and  the  determination  of  the  nature  of 
the  education  of  the  upper  class,  have  already  been  noticed 
(pp.  209-212).  There  remain  to  be  mentioned  a  few  more 
striking  moral  characteristics  of  all  classes  of  society  of  both 
the  Eastern  and  Western  Empire,  of  both  the  Greek  and 
the  Roman,  that  reveal  by  contrast  the  nature  and  value 
of  the  early  Christian  education. 

The  virtues  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  were  largely  civic. 
In  all  stages  of  their  history  the  types  of  virtue  held  highest  in 
general  estimate  were  those  of  patriotism,  bravery,  and  of  ser- 
vice of  any  kind  to  the  state.  The  personal  virtues  of  sym- 
pathy for  the  unfortunate,  of  regard  for  fellow-man,  of  charity, 
were  seldom  dwelt  upon  and  never  very  highly  regarded. 
Now  with  the  imperial  period,  as  previously  noted,  even  these 
civic  virtues  rapidly  disappear.  The  emperor  assumes  to  him- 
self and  his  subordinates  all  power;  even  municipal  govern- 
ment disappears  save  as  a  machinery  for  tax  gathering,  and 
there  is  no  demand  upon  the  individual  citizen  for  political 
services  or  opportunity  for  such  activity  other  than  through 
personal  abasement  to  an  absolute  and  irresponsible  power. 
The  army  is  filled  with  mercenaries,  and  the  old  Roman 
bravery,  dignity,  and  sobriety  give  way  to  love  of  ease,  to 
indulgence,  and  to  sensuality.  Consider  what  must  have  been 
the  results. 

This  large  free  population  had  for  generations  come  to 
look  upon  themselves  as  the  lords  of  the  earth.  They  now 
had  few  political  and  military  obligations  or  opportunities  foi 


Middle  Ages  229 

activity  •,  they  were  shut  out  from  all  mercantile  and  indus- 
trial pursuits  by  the  immense  class  of  slaves ;  they  were 
supplied  at  Rome  and  the  immediate  vicinity  with  all  neces- 
sities by  the  lavish  distribution  of  food  and  even  of  money 
by  the  emperors.  Their  religion  offered  no  restraint  to  their 
vices  and  no  belief  in  a  future  life  that  would  bring  retribu- 
tion or  reward  for  conduct  in  this  :  on  the  contrary,  it  fur- 
nished occasions  for  the  grossest  scenes  of  public  sensuality. 
They  had  before  them  a  court  and  an  aristocracy  often  given 
to  unimaginable  excesses  and  debauchery.  The  theater  fur- 
nished amusements  which  had  little  resemblance  in  their 
degeneracy  even  to  those  of  the  present  time  which  are  most 
reprehensible;  and  in  public  spectacles  thousands  of  their 
fellow-men  and  of  animals  were  slain  amid  all  the  refinements 
of  cruelty  and  bloodthirstiness.  One  of  the  most  difficult 
features  of  Roman  society  to  comprehend  is  the  importance 
and  the  extent  of  these  gladiatorial  shows.  They  met  with 
little  condemnation  from  even  the  moralists  of  the  times,  and 
practically  the  only  restrictions  placed  upon  them  by  the 
empire  were  the  prevention  of  the  enrollment  of  senators 
among  the  gladiatorial  class,  and  the  prohibition  of  the 
slaughter  of  an  excessive  number  of  men,  though  that  at  the 
accession  of  Trajan  more  than  ten  thousand  men  thus  fought 
for  public  amusement  was  not  considered  excessive.  The 
most  refined  women  of  the  period  were  devoted  to  these 
public  spectacles  ;  even  women  descended  to  fight  in  the 
circus ;  there  were  connoisseurs  in  the  expressions  of  men 
dying  in  torture ;  at  private  banquets  men  were  torn  to  pieces 
by  wild  beasts  for  the  entertainment  of  guests.  It  was  said 
of  one  of  the  emperors  that  he  "  never  supped  without  human 
blood."  These  facts  indicate  how  decadent  beyond  all  modern 
standards  was  this  society;  how  impossible  it  is  for  us  now 
to  comprehend  those  times ;  and  also  what  was  the  task  be- 
fore the  new  Christian  education. 

Tacitus  said  of  imperial  society,  even  in   his  own  times, 


230  History  of  Education 

"  Virtue  is  the  sentence  of  death ; "    and  Mr.  Lecky,  com 
menting  on  this  statement  says,  "  In  no  period  had  brute 
force  more  completely  triumphed,  in  none  was  the  thirst  for 
material  advantages  more  intense,  in  very  few  was  vice  more 
ostentatiously  glorified." 

CHRISTIANITY  IN  REACTION  AGAINST  THIS  WORLD 
OF  ACTIVITY.  Early  Christian  Life  a  Schooling. —  In  its 
reaction  against  this  corrupt  society  of  the  last  pagan  cen- 
turies, life  in  the  early  Christian  Church  was  a  schooling  of 
very  great  importance ;  to  be  sure,  this  was  not  a  schooling 
of  an  intellectual  character,  but  we  have  previously  seen  how 
formal  and  how  futile  was  the  intellectual  education  for  some 
centuries  of  the  new  era.  Education  now  for  a  thousand 
years  is  to  possess  very  little  of  the  intellectual  element.  It 
was  during  this  period  that  the  character  of  the  education 
dominant  for  the  thousand  years  after  the  Christianization  of 
the  Roman  Empire  was  shaped.  As  a  type  of  education  — 
the  religious  education  that  has  existed  quite  as  long  as  any 
other  —  and  as  an  element  that  enters  into  all  education,  it 
is  important  for  the  student  of  educational  history  to  compre- 
hend it. 

The  early  Church  was  concerned  in  the  moral  reformation 
of  the  world,  in  the  destruction  of  the  state  of  society  already 
described ;  for  this  reason  it  turned  its  attention  wholly  to 
the  moral  education  of  its  own  membership  and  thus  to  the 
regeneration  of  society.  The  gladiatorial  shows,  which  had 
extended  their  demoralizing  influence  throughout  the  empire, 
were  put  down  by  the  Church,  though  not  without  a  long 
struggle ;  divorce,  which  had  become  such  an  evil  that  it  was 
said  that  men  changed  their  wives  as  easily  as  their  clothes, 
was  forbidden  or  at  least  strictly  regulated ;  infanticide, 
which  was  universally  practiced  and  had  been  largely  respon- 
sible for  the  great  shrinkage  of  population  and  had  been 
combated,  when  at  all,  by  philosophers  and  by  government 


Middle  Ages  231 

only  on  political  grounds  and  hence  ineffectively,  was  now 
opposed  on  moral  grounds  and  rooted  out  of  the  Church  and 
finally  out  of  society  at  large ;  in  a  similar  manner,  the  ex- 
posure of  children  was  definitely  treated  as  murder,  and 
through  the  teaching  of  the  early  Church  and  the  large  sums 
of  money  which  it  spent  for  the  care  of  such  children,  the 
standard  of  public  opinion  was  raised  from  the  incompre- 
hensibly low  one  of  the  entire  classical  period ;  the  immoral 
public  ceremonials  and  the  lascivious  practices  of  private 
worship  of  the  pagan  religions  were  of  course  denied  all 
communicants  of  the  new  Church  and  were  in  time  driven 
from  public  tolerance.  In  these  respects,  and,  above  all, 
through  the  high  standards  of  personal  morality,  as  expressed 
in  the  Mosaic  law  and  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  standards 
altogether  unknown  among  the  masses  of  population,  the 
early  Church  enforced  a  moral  education  that  was  entirely 
new  in  the  history  of  the  world  as  well  as  in  the  history  of 
education.  If  one  will  compare  the  simplicity  and  purity  of 
character  of  early  Christian  worship  with  the  ceremonials 
of  the  pagan  religions ;  the  character  of  the  Christian  priest- 
hood with  that  of  the  pagan  cults ;  the  morality  inculcated  in 
the  one  with  the  habit  fostered  in  the  other;  the  sacrifice 
entailed  in  the  one  with  the  indulgence  granted  in  the  other ; 
the  humanitarian  sentiments  in  the  one  with  the  cruelty  and 
brutality,  however  refined,  in  the  other  ;  the  charity  and  gen- 
erosity of  the  one  with  the  selfishness  of  the  other ;  if  these 
comparisons  be  made,  the  importance  of  this  education  will 
be  readily  understood. 

It  is  the  unanimous  testimony  of  historians  that  for  the 
first  two  centuries,  and  for  a  large  part  of  the  third,  the  life 
upheld  by  the  Christian  Church,  with  its  purity  yet  unsullied 
and  its  ambitions  yet  untainted,  furnished  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  phenomena  in  history ;  and  that  this  purity  of 
life  was  largely  responsible  for  the  rapidity  and  thoroughness 
of  its  conquest  of  the  Roman  world.  This  high  ideal  of 


232  History  of  Education 

moral  life  was  exacted  from  all  its  membership,  and  since 
during  this  time,  the  body  of  church  membership  was  sharply 
marked  off  from  the  rest  of  society,  delinquent  members 
could  readily  be  returned  in  disgrace  into  the  body  of  popu- 
lation whence  drawn.  Since  it  was  neither  honorable,  popu- 
lar, nor  profitable  in  the  worldly  sense  to  live  this  Christian 
life,  those  adhering  to  the  new  ideal  were  more  genuinely 
devoted  to  its  teachings  than  was  true  in  a  later  age  when 
the  whole  Roman  world  became  Christian.  In  this  sense 
early  Christianity  was  a  schooling. 

Catechumenal  Schools.  —  In  the  early  Church  there  grew 
up,  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  a  process  of  instruction  for 
those  who  desired  to  become  members  of  the  Christian  com- 
munity but  who  lacked  the  requisite  knowledge  of  doctrine 
and  the  requisite  moral  stability.  In  general  these  were 
divided  into  two  groups,  —  those  who  had  merely  expressed 
a  cTesire  to  become  members  of  the  Church,  and  those  who 
were  thought  by  the  Church  to  be  worthy  of  full  admission. 
Only  after  candidates  had  undergone  some  instruction  and 
discipline  were  they  received  into  full  communion  through 
the  sacrament  of  baptism.  The  tendency  in  this  early  period 
was  to  postpone  this  rite  of  baptism  for  a  longer  and  longer 
time  until  eventually  the  custom  gave  origin  to  great  evils. 
These  catechumens  included  children  of  believers,  Jewish 
converts,  and  the  adult  converts  of  the  heathen  population. 
Though  to  a  certain  extent  the  discipline  entailed  was  intel- 
lectual, in  that  it  had  to  do  with  doctrines,  it  was  for  the  most 
part  a  moral  discipline  and  a  moral  oversight.  In  one 
other  respect,  in  music,  this  instruction  possessed  significance. 
The  psalmody  of  the  early  Church,  especially  in  the  East, 
was  of  conspicuous  importance.  In  regard  to  moral  train- 
ing, this  use  of  music  was  probably  of  an  importance  com- 
parable with  the  function  of  music  in  Greek  education.  At 
stated  periods  in  the  week,  in  some  places  every  day,  the 
catechumens  met  in  the  porch  or  in  some  other  specific 


Middle  Ages  233 

portion  of  the  church  for  instruction  and  moral  training. 
This  custom  of  catechumenal  instruction  was  universal  and 
through  it,  supplemented  by  the  oversight  of  the  home 
which  was  far  more  rigid  than  that  of  the  contemporary 
Roman  or  Grecian  home,  the  children  of  the  Christian  popu- 
lation received  whatever  education  they  obtained. 

Catechetical  Schools.  —  From  their  method,  and  from 
their  use  of  the  catechism  as  the  basis  of  their  instruction 
in  subject-matter,  the  catechumenal  schools  were  also  called 
catechetical  schools.  But  by  way  of  distinction  this  term  is 
better  applied  to  a  development  of  these  schools  in  a  few 
localities  into  institutions  carrying  on  a  higher  grade  of 
work.  As  the  Christian  leaders  at  Alexandria  and  other 
Eastern  centers  came  in  conflict  with  the  Greek  schools  of 
thought,  it  became  more  and  more  necessary  to  equip  the 
leaders  and  the  ministers  of  the  Church  with  a  training 
similar  to  that  of  the  Greeks.  For  some  centuries  Alex- 
andria was  the  center  of  this  intellectual  and  theological 
activity.  In  179  A.D.  Pantaenus,  a  converted  Stoic  philoso- 
pher, became  head  of  the  school  for  catechumens  at  Alexan- 
dria. Bringing  to  the  service  of  Christian  instruction  the 
learning  of  the  Greek  philosopher  and  the  eloquence  of  a 
rhetorician,  through  him  and  his  successors  both  philosophy 
and  rhetoric — in  fact  all  the  Grecian  learning  —  was  brought 
to  the  service  of  the  Church.  Pantaenus  was  succeeded  in 
turn  by  the  two  most  noted  of  the  Greek  Church  Fathers, 
Clement  and  Origen,  from  whom  came  the  earliest  formula- 
tion of  Christian  theology.  Such  schools,  though  of  less 
importance,  grew  from  the  catechumenal  schools  elsewhere. 
In  231  Origen,  compelled  to  leave  Alexandria,  established 
a  similar  school  in  Asia  where  he  taught  philosophy,  rhetoric, 
logic,  astronomy,  and  practically  the  entire  round  of  Grecian 
learning.  Here  literature,  history,  and  science  were  studied 
as  in  Grecian  schools,  though  from  a  different  point  of  view. 
Though  to  this  school  came  scholars  of  all  classes,  it  became 


234  History  of  Education 

a  school  especially  for  the  training  of  the  clergy  under  the 
direction  of  the  local  bishop. 

Episcopal  and  Cathedral  Schools.  —  Thus  there  grew  from 
this  rather  indefinite  institution,  termed  the  catechetical 
school,  the  very  definite  type,  that  developed  all  over  Europe, 
constituting  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  a  class  of  schools 
as  important  in  some  respects  as  those  of  the  monasteries, 
and  persisting  until  the  present  time.  Other  schools,  such 
as  that  of  Origen  at  Caesarea,  though  less  thorough,  were 
established  throughout  the  East  by  other  bishops  for  the 
training  of  their  clergy  and  for  the  general  instruction  of 
converts.  It  was  but  natural  that  in  a  population  well  edu- 
cated and  much  given  to  philosophical  and  theological  dis- 
cussion such  schools  should  flourish.  Calixtus,  Bishop  of 
Rome,  during  the  opening  year  of  the  third  century  estab- 
lished there  a  similar  institution,  which  developed  rapidly 
into  a  flourishing  school  patronized  by  emperors  and  possess- 
ing a  large  library  under  the  charge  of  skilled  librarians  whose 
names  are  preserved  to  us  from  the  fifth  century.  Promotion 
in  the  ranks  of  the  clergy  soon  came  to  depend  somewhat  upon 
studies  carried  on  in  this  or  similar  institutions.  Such  schools 
.  developed  rapidly  because,  as  the  identity  of  the  words  pagan 
\  and  countryman  indicates,  the  spread^of^£he  gospel  occurred 
I  through  the  large  cities.  As  the  life  of  the  prieSts-gath ered 
Nil  <h»hi  1 1  htral  places  was  brought  into  subjection  to  regular 
rules  or  canons,  as  was  done  first  in  354,  it  became  possible  to 
regulate  the  work  of  such  schools  more  definitely.  During 
the  fifth  ajid  sixth  centuries  the  Church  councils  legislated 
that  children  destined  for  the  priesthood  should  early  be 
placed  in  these  training  places  under  the  charge  of  the 
bishop.  As  the  result  of  this  and  similar  legislation,  of 
the  growth  of  powerful  episcopal  estates,  of  the  need  for 
the  erection  of  appropriate  buildings,  and  of  the  need  for  a 
larger  body  of  clergy  under  the  direction  of  the  bishop, 
such  schools  became  attached  to  practically  every  bishopric 


Middle  Ages  235 

in  the  West.  In  the  West  they  were  more  commonly  called 
cathedral  schools  from  the  building  where  located.  With 
the  overthrow  of  Roman  culture  by  the  barbarians,  when 
education  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Church  completely,  these 
'""}  .schools  with  those  of  the  monasteries  remained  the  only  ones 
of  the  West.  From  the  eighth  to  the  twelfth  centuries  it  is 
probable  that  the  monastic  schools  were  of  far  greater  impor- 
tance than  the  cathedral  schools ;  but  with  the  expansion  of 
knowledge  and  the  greater  tolerance  of  inquiry,  the  rigidity 
and  the  narrowness  of  the  monastic  schools  resulted  in  the 
renewed  growth  and  revived  importance  of  the  schools  under 
the  immediate  direction  of  the  bishops. 

,v.a 

EARLY  CHRISTIANITY  IN  REACTION  AGAINST  THE 
WORLD  OF  THOUGHT.  —  Opinions  concerning  the  relation 
between  Christianity  and  pagan  learning  and  culture  divided 
the  leaders  of  the  early  Church  into  two  quite  well-defined 
groups.  One  held  that  this  ancient  learning  contained  much 
that  was  valuable  for  Christians  and  for  the  Church ;  that 
much  of  it  confirmed  the  teachings  of  the  Bible ;  that  phi- 
losophy was  a  search  for  truth  as  Christianity  was ;  that  all 
philosophies  contained  some  valuable  truth,  though  not  the 
highest  and  not  complete ;  and  that  Christianity  should  in- 
clude all  this  ancient  learning  and  should  build  upon  it.  The 
other  group,  recalling  the  scorn  of  the  Greek  philosophers, 
the  insults  and  the  atrocities  heaped  upon  them  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  this  heathen  culture,  and  the  immoralities  con- 
tained in  their  literature  and  sanctioned  by  their  religions, 
held  that  there  could  be  no  compromise  between  the  truth 
and  the  world ;  that  philosophies  when  connected  with  Chris- 
tianity produced  only  heresies ;  that  literature  and  culture  in 
general  represented  merely  the  seductions  and  the  pleasures 
of  the  world ;  that  those  who  were  instructed  in  the  legends 
of  Homer,  in  the  myths  of  Zeus  and  the  gods,  got  from  them 
nothing  but  lessons  of  impurity  and,  hence,  that  such  litera 


236  History  of  Education 

ture  was  unworthy  of  acceptance  by  the  Christian  Church; 
and  consequently  that  the  Church  should  reject  all  of  this 
ancient  learning  as  hostile  to  the  interests  and  the  purposes 
of  Christianity. 

In  general  the  view  friendly  to  this  learning  prevailed  in 
the  earlier  history  of  the  Church  and  especially  in  the  East 
among  the  Greeks ;  the  view  hostile  to  this  learning  became 
more  general  in  the  West  and,  even  before  the  overthrow 
of  the  old  social  structure  by  the  barbarians,  prevailed  among 
the  Christians  of  those  parts.  And  it  was  but  natural  that 
the  Christians  of  the  West  should  identify  heathenism  with 
this  ancient  culture,  for  the  chief  hold  which  the  old  reli- 
gion retained  upon  the  people  was  through  this  literature ; 
the  most  forcible  opposition  to  the  progress  of  the  Church 
came  from  the  class  most  conversant  with  this  literature,  and 
the  chief  stronghold  of  the  pagan  regime  was,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  the  schools.  On  the  grounds  that  a  Christian  could 
not  appreciate,  certainly  could  not  teach  Homer,  Virgil 
and  similar  works,  the  apostate  emperor,  Julian,  forbade 
all  Christians  teaching  in  the  rhetorical  and  grammatical 
schools.  While  this  proscription  implies  the  presence  of 
many  Christians  in  these  schools,  it  is  probable  that  they 
were  merely  nominal  Christians,  as  was  Augustine  in  his 
earlier  years.  That  this  attitude  was  fully  reciprocated  is 
indicated  by  the  action  of  one  of  the  synods  of  Carthage.  In 
398,  long  after  the  Church  was  completely  triumphant  in  the 
empire,  even  long  after  there  was  any  specific  danger  to  be 
apprehended  from  this  pagan  influence  hiding  in  the  old  learn- 
ing, this  synod  forbade  all  bishops  to  read  any  of  the  pagan 
literature.  This  had  come  to  be  the  attitude  typical  of  the 
Church.  With  such  a  hostility  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  that 
learning  almost  ceased  to  exist,  and  that  there  followed  for 
some  centuries  the  period  commonly  termed  "the  dark  ages." 

Since  this  attitude  of  the  Church  explains  to  a  large  extent 
the  condition  of  education  for  a  thousand  years,  some  further 


Middle  Ages  237 

icasons  in  extenuation  or  explanation  of  it  should  be  given. 
One  of  the  most  important  of  these  has  been  mentioned :  it  is 
the  fact  that  the  great  mission  of  the  Church  as  well  as  the 
great  need  of  the  times  was  a  moral  one.  Added  to  this  was 
the  belief  prevalent  throughout  the  early  Church  that  the 
second  advent  of  Christ  was  near,  and  that  consequently, 
learning,  culture,  and  in  fact  all  mundane  affairs  were  of 
trivial  importance.  The  persecution  and  the  exile  which 
many  Christians  in  the  first  three  centuries  were  compelled  to 
undergo  deprived  them  of  all  opportunity  for  the  acquisition 
of  pagan  learning  had  they  desired  it,  and  destroyed  all 
inclination  to  attain  to  the  most  distinctive  possession  of 
their  persecutors.  In  the  section  following,  that  on  monasti- 
cism,  is  discussed  more  fully  one  other  great  reason  for  this 
indifference.  This  is  asceticism  or  the  opposition  to  all 
worldly  interests  and  to  all  that  gives  satisfaction  or  pleasure 
of  a  human  or  natural  character.  Two  other  reasons,  one 
operative  in  the  earlier  centuries,  the  other  in  later  times, 
explain  in  part  this  indifference  of  the  Church  to  learning. 
In  the  early  period  its  success  was  largest  with  the  lower 
class  of  people  to  whom  its  message  brought  a  wonderful 
deliverance.  They  were  disinclined,  through  nature,  through 
sympathy,  and  through  tradition,  to  take  any  great  interest  in 
the  culture  that  had  been  made  possible  only  by  their  debase- 
ment. In  the  later  period,  the  strength  of  the  Church  was 
found  in  the  new  Teutonic  peoples,  whom,  it  is  true,  the 
.Church  raised  out  of  barbarism,  but  to  whom  at  the  same  time 
it  was  impossible  for  many  generations  to  impart  the  graces 
of  culture.  Again  the  unification  of  the  Church  in  the  West 
and  its  reputation  and  desire  for  orthodoxy  acted  as  a  check 
upon  learning  and  upon  the  spirit  of  inquiry,  that,  after  a 
manner,  was  fostered  or  permitted  in  the  East  long  after  it 
had  disappeared  in  the  West. 

As  a  foundation  for  the  study  of  the  subsequent  ages  a 
more  concrete  view  of  this  difference  in  the  attitude  between 


238  History  of  Education 

the  early  and  the  later,  the  eastern  and  the  western  Church; 
is  desirable. 

Attitude  of  the  Greek  Christian  Fathers  toward  Learning.  — 
Though  the  Apostle  Paul  remarked  that  "  not  many  wise  are 
called,"  by  the  second  and  third  centuries  many  trained  in 
all  the  learning  of  the  Greeks  had  accepted  Christianity. 
Among  these  Justin  Martyr,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen 
and  Basil,  and  others  of  the  Greek  Fathers  were  the  most 
prominent.  It  is  but  natural  that  these  men,  who  were  pri- 
marily Greek  philosophers  and  most  of  them  teachers  as  well, 
should  aim  to  bring  all  of  this  learning  to  the  service  of  the 
Church. 

The  earliest  of  importance  was  Justin  Martyr,  whose  life 
covers  approximately  the  first  three  quarters  of  the  second 
century.  A  converted  teacher  of  philosophy,  he  continued 
throughout  his  life,  to  follow  his  profession,  to  wear  his  phi- 
losopher's garb,  and  to  retain  his  belief  in  Platonism.  He 
claimed  that  Plato,  Socrates,  and  Heracleitus  were  Christians 
before  the  time  of  Christ,  and  that  philosophy  was  an 
attempt,  though  falling  short,  after  the  same  end  as  Chris- 
tianity. Consequently,  he  held,  the  teachings  of  philosophy 
were  included  in  those  of  Christianity,  and  so  far  as  they  were 
correct,  harmonized  with  it. 

Clement  (c.  i6o-c.  215)  was  the  successor  of  Pantaenus  as 
head  of  the  catechetical  school  at  Alexandria.  Holding  that 
the  Gospels  were  perfected  Platonism  and,  with  early  Chris- 
tian philosophers  in  general,  that  "  Plato  was  Moses  Atticized,", 
Clement  taught  that  pagan  philosophy  was  "  a  pedagogue  to 
bring  the  world  to  Christ."  Another  one  of  his  doctrines  was 
that  God  had  made  three  covenants  with  man,  —  the  law,  the 
Gospel,  and  philosophy.  Most  of  his  teachings  and  writings 
were  directed  toward  the  reconciliation  of  faith  and  reason, 
of  Christian  revelation  and  pagan  philosophy.  To  such  a 
degree  did  he  find  this  true  that  to  him  Christianity  became, 
for  the  most  part,  a  philosophy.  His  citations  from  writings 


Middle  Ages  239 

of  the  Greeks  show  a  familiarity  with  many  hundred  different 
works  in  every  field  of  literature. 

His  pupil  and  successor,  Origen,  the  most  learned  of  the 
Christian  Fathers  (c.  i85~c.  254),  when  speaking  of  the  sciences 
Df  the  Greeks,  wrote :  "  They  are  to  be  used  so  that  they  may 
contribute  to  the  understanding  of  the  Scriptures ;  for  just  as 
philosophers  are  accustomed  to  say  that  geometry,  music, 
grammar,  rhetoric,  and  astronomy  all  dispose  us  to  the  study 
of  philosophy,  so  we  may  say  that  philosophy,  rightly  studied, 
disposes  us  to  the  study  of  Christianity.  We  are  permitted 
when  we  go  out  of  Egypt  to  carry  with  us  the  riches  of  the 
Egyptians  wherewith  to  adorn  the  tabernacle ;  only  let  us 
beware  how  we  reverse  the  process,  and  have  Israel  to  go 
down  into  Egypt  and  seek  for  treasure ;  that  is  what  Jere- 
boam  did  in  old  time,  and  what  heretics  do  in  our  own."  This 
allegorical  use  of  the  despoiling  of  the  Egyptians  occurs  over 
and  over  again  in  later  times,  as  by  St.  Augustine  himself. 
As  the  founder  of  systematic  theology,  the  formulator  of  most 
of  the  dogmas  of  the  Church,  the  earliest  scientific  critic  of 
the  Scriptures,  Origen  exerted  the  most  extended  influence 
of  any  of  the  Fathers  except  possibly  St.  Augustine.  Espe- 
cially through  his  teachings  concerning  the  harmony  of  the 
pagan  sciences  with  the  doctrines  of  religion,  of  Greek  culture 
with  Christian  faith,  he  reconciled  the  Greek  world  to  the  new 
religion  and  aided  in  its  dissemination. 

By  the  time  of  St.  Basil  (331-379)  and  Gregory  of  Nazi- 
anzus  (c.325-c.39o),  the  opposition  of  the  Christians  to  pagan 
learning  and  especially  to  Greek  philosophy  had  become 
more  pronounced;  but  both  these  Fathers  unite  in  the  protest 
of  the  earlier  ones  against  this  prejudice  and  in  the  effort  to 
show  that  Greek  literature  is  full  of  both  principle  and  event, 
of  both  precept  and  example,  helpful  in  instruction  and  lead- 
ing to  the  higher  life.  Speaking  of  the  closing  of  the  pagan 
schools  to  Christians  by  Julian  (p.  236),  Gregory  wrote :  "  For 
my  part  I  trust  that  every  one  who  cares  for  learning  will 


240  History  of  Education 

take  part  in  my  indignation.  I  leave  to  others  fortune,  birth, 
and  every  fancied  good  which  can  flatter  the  imagination  of 
man.  I  value  only  science  and  letters,  and  regret  no  labors 
that  I  have  spent  in  their  acquisition.  I  have  preferred  and 
shall  ever  prefer  learning  to  all  earthly  riches,  and  hold 
nothing  dearer  on  earth,  next  to  the  joys  of  heaven  and  the 
hopes  of  eternity."  However,  the  opinions  of  these  later 
Fathers  is  not  so  unqualified  as  that  of  the  earlier.  It  is  only 
within  limits  that  learning  is  recommended.  Later  Chrysostom 
(c.  347-4 11),  though  not  in  condemnation,  it  is  true,  yet  with 
greater  disparagement,  writes,  "  I  have  long  ago  laid  aside 
such  follies,  for  one  cannot  spend  all  one's  life  in  child's  play." 
And  Basil,  writing  on  the  education  of  children,  thus  sums 
up  his  judgment,  expressed  fully  in  a  much  longer  discussion: 
"  Are  we  then  to  give  up  literature  ?  you  will  exclaim.  I  do 
not  say  that ;  but  I  do  say  that  we  must  not  kill  souls.  .  .  . 
In  fact,  the  choice  lies  between  two  alternatives :  a  liberal 
education  which  you  may  get  by  sending  your  children  to  the 
public  schools,  or  the  salvation  of  their  souls  which  you  secure 
•by  sending  them  to  the  monks.  Which  is  to  gain  the  day, 
science  or  the  soul  ?  If  you  can  unite  both  advantages,  do 
so  by  all  means ;  but  if  not,  choose  the  most  precious." 

Attitude  of  the  Latin  Church  Fathers.  —  By  the  fourth 
century,  especially  among  the  Roman  Christians,  Hellenism 
had  become  almost  synonymous  with  hostility  to  the  Church. 
Most  of  the  Latin  Fathers — Tertullian,  Arnobius,  Lactantius, 
Gregory,  Augustine  —  had  been  teachers  of  oratory  or  of 
rhetoric.  Tertullian  was  primarily  a  lawyer;  Jerome  and 
Augustine  were  saturated  with  the  pagan  learning.  All  were 
skilled  in  the  science,  if  not  the  practice,  of  Roman  learning 
and  education,  and  some  had  written  treatises  upon  these 
subjects. 

Tertullian  (c.iso-c.23o),  the  earliest  of  the  Latin  Fathers, 
reveals  the  attitude  of  the  West  in  a  most  characteristic  man- 
ner. To  him  all  Grecian  learning  was  bound  up  with  heresies 


Middle  Ages  241 

and,  as  he  was  especially  engaged  in  the  conflict  against  Gnos- 
ticism, he  sought  to  widen  the  breach  between  philosophy 
and  the  Church.  In  his  Prescription  against  Heresies,  he 
writes  :  — • 

"These  are  'the  doctrines  '  of  man  and  'of  demons'  pro- 
duced for  the  itching  ears  of  the  spirit  of  this  world's  wisdom ; 
this  the  Lord  called  'foolishness,'  and  chose  even  the  foolish 
things  of  this  world  to  confound  even  philosophy  itself.  For 
philosophy  is  the  material  of  the  world's  wisdom  and  rash 
interpreter  of  the  nature  and  dispensation  of  God.  Indeed, 
heresies  themselves  are  instigated  by  philosophy.  From  this 
source  came  the  aeons  and  I  know  not  what  infinite  forms, 
and  the  trinity  of  man  in  the  system  of  Valentinus,  who  was 
of  Plato's  school,  (etc.).  .  .  .  The  same  subject-matter  is 
discussed  over  and  over  again  by  the  heretics  and  the  philos- 
ophers ;  the  same  arguments  are  involved.  Whence  comes 
evil  ?  Why  is  it  permitted  ?  What  is  the  origin  of  man  ? 
and  in  what  way  does  he  come  ?  .  .  .  Unhappy  Aristotle ! 
who  invented  for  these  men  dialectic,  the  art  of  building  up 
and  pulling  down;  an  art  so  evasive  in  its  propositions,  so 
far  fetched  in  its  conjectures,  so  harsh  in  its  arguments,  so 
productive  of  contentions  —  embarrassing  even  to  itself  — 
retracting  everything,  and  really  treating  of  nothing !  Whence 
spring  those  '  fables  and  endless  genealogies '  and  '  unprofit- 
able questions '  and  '  words  which  spread  like  a  cancer '  ? 
From  all  these,  when  the  apostle  would  restrain  us,  he  ex- 
pressly names  philosophy  as  that  which  he  would  have  us  be 
on  our  guard  against.  .  .  .  What  indeed  has  Athens  to  do 
with  Jerusalem  ?  What  concord  is  there  between  the 
Academy  and  the  Church  ?  What  between  heretics  and 
Christians  ?  .  .  .  Away  with  all  attempts  to  produce  a  mot- 
tled Christianity  of  Stoic,  Platonic,  and  dialectic  composition!" 

In  his  work  On  Idolatry  in  the  chapter  On  Schoolmasters  and 
their  Difficulties,  while  he  absolutely  denies  that  a  Christian 
can  be  a  teacher  of  this  ancient  learning,  he  is  somewhat 
more  tolerant  toward  the  study  of  it  since  thus  one  might  be 
able  to  refute  its  errors. 

To  St.  Jerome  (331-423),  the  translator  of  the  version  of 


242  History  of  Education 

the  Bible  for  centuries  accepted  by  the  Church,  this  conflict 
between  the  classical  learning  and  the  Christian  faith  became 
most  clearly  defined.  Perhaps  no  single  event  of  this  general 
conflict  had  so  great  an  influence  upon  succeeding  genera- 
tions, by  which  it  was  repeated  over  and  over,  as  that  of  his 
famous  vision  (374).  Dreaming  that  he  was  dead  and 
dragged  before  the  judgment  seat,  he  was  asked  the  ques- 
tion, "  Who  art  thou  ?  "  Upon  answering,  "  A  Christian,"  he 
heard  with  the  stricken  conscience  that  repeated  its  awful 
warning  to  many  successive  generations,  the  terrible  judg- 
ment, "  It  is  false :  thou  art  no  Christian ;  thou  art  a  Cicero- 
nian ;  where  the  treasure  is,  there  the  heart  is  also."  Jerome 
was  also  chiefly  responsible  for  the  introduction  of  monasti- 
cism  into  the  West.  The  love  of  learning  and  the  ascetic 
idea  were  the  two  conflicting  motives  appealing  to  him 
throughout  his  life.  As  is  shown  by  his  constant  quotation 
from  classical  authors,  he  could  not  entirely  give  up  his  love 
for  pagan  learning,  though  after  this  vision  he  turned  his 
scholarship  entirely  to  scriptural  study  and  religious  writings. 
While  he  could  no  longer  favor  an  education  in  the  old  litera- 
ture, he  could  not  bring  himself  absolutely  to  condemn  it. 
As  he  shows  in  his  Letter  to  Laeta  (CVII)  he  believed  that  if 
such  studies  were  to  be  permitted  at  all,  it  should  be  "  rather 
to  judge  them  than  to  follow  them." 

In  the  case  of  St.  Augustine  the  same  retrograde  move- 
ment in  respect  to  appreciation  for  the  old  learning  is  to 
be  found  as  in  the  case  of  Jerome.  Augustine  (354-430), 
until  middle  life  a  teacher  of  rhetoric  and  oratory,  had  begun 
a  cyclopedia  on  the  liberal  arts,  of  which  he  completed  the 
portion  on  grammar,  a  part  of  that  on  music,  and  the  intro- 
ductions to  the  other  parts.  His  treatise  on  dialectic,  either 
original  or  epitomes  from  Aristotle,  had  considerable  influ- 
ence in  the  later  Middle  Ages.  Not  so  thorough  a  scholar  as 
Jerome,  he  yet  was  a  man  of  broad  interests  and  sympathies, 
and  one  passionately  fond  of  Latin  literature.  Being  intel- 


Middle  Ages  243 

lectually  the  most  active  and  the  most  brilliant  of  the  Fathers 
of  the  western  Church,  and  exerting  the  widest,  the  deepest, 
and  the  most  far-reaching  influence  of  them  all,  he  called  into 
service  his  extended  learning  in  combating  the  many  heresies 
in  the  Church  through  polemic  and  expository  writings. 
Thus,  while  in  his  earlier  years  he  sanctioned  "  the  spoiling  of 
the  Egyptians,"  at  a  later  period  of  his  life  his  sympathy  for 
classical  learning  was  much  restricted.  He  discountenanced 
its  use  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  personally  responsible 
for  the  prohibition  of  philosophical  and  literary  study  made 
by  the  Council  of  Carthage  (p.  236). 

§  2.     MONASTICISM.        EDUCATION   AS   A   MORAL   DISCIPLINE 

SCOPE  OF  MONASTICISM  AND  IMPORTANCE  OF 
MONASTIC  EDUCATION.  —  Monasticism  and  monastic  edu- 
cation are  topics  so  large  that  even  were  it  necessary  it  would 
be  impossible  to  give  a  complete  view  of  the  educational 
importance  of  monasticism  within  the  limits  of  a  few  pages.1 
In  the  period  of  time  covered,  it  reaches  from  the  fourth  to  the 
sixteenth,  even  to  the  eighteenth,  century ;  in  the  types  of  life 
represented  it  includes  the  anchorite  in  the  desert,  the  cenobite 
in  his  cell,  the  friar  in  his  wanderings,  and  the  Jesuit  in  his 
schoolroom  or  on  his  political  or  ecclesiastical  mission  ;  in  the 
territory  influenced  it  extends  from  the  valley  of  the  Nile  to 

1  What  Professor  McGiffert  says  of  the  institution  as  a  whole,  may  quite  as  truth- 
fully be  applied  to  its  educational  importance :  "  Within  monasticism's  mighty  bosom 
have  surged  the  passions  and  the  longings  of  multitudes  of  the  noblest  and  of 
the  meanest  of  the  sons  of  earth.  Hope,  fear,  love,  hate,  humility,  pride,  self- 
effacing  devotion,  self-asserting  ambition,  world-renunciation,  and  world-conquest 
—  all  the  impulses  of  which  the  human  heart  is  capable  have  nourished  in  monas- 
ticism's fruitful  soil.  The  study  of  monasticism  is  the  study  not  of  a  minor  gov- 
ernment or  of  a  side  eddy  within  the  Christian  Church,  but  of  Christianity  itself, 
for  Christianity  was  for  centuries  monasticism.  But  the  study  of  monasticism  is  a 
study  not  of  Christianity  alone,  but  of  life  —  for  monasticism  was  for  centuries 
life  at  its  noblest  and  its  basest."  (Harnack,  Monasticism,  Introduction.)  In  its 
educational  relationship  monasticism  presents  a  similar  diversity  of  types. 


244  History  of  Education 

the  highlands  of  Scotland ;  in  the  diversity  of  types  of  intel 
lectual  life  represented,  it  includes  the  fearfulness  of  the 
hermit,  the  indifference  of  many  a  cenobite,  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  friar,  and  the  brilliancy  of  the  followers  of  Loyola. 
Without  pretense  of  giving  any  adequate  account  of  the  his- 
tory or  of  the  educational  activity  of  monasticism,  it  needs 
to  be  here  presented  only  as  a  type.  Yet  as  a  type  it  is  of 
great  importance,  historically,  if  not  in  the  present.  In  monas- 
ticism the  education  of  the  early  Church  finds  its  culmination 
and  perpetuation.  From  the  sixth  century  to  the  thirteenthj 
save  for  the  cathedral  schools,  —  which  during  the  greater 
part  of  this  period  were  in  a  state  of  but  minor  activity  and 
even  then  taught  for  the  most  part  by  monks,  — there  was  in 
Western  Europe  no  other  education  containing  any  intellec- 
tual element.  Again,  since  in  the  activities  of  the  friars 
the  work  of  the  early  universities  is  largely  included,  for  three 
additional  centuries  this  type  of  monasticism  continued  to  be 
the  most  important  single  educational  institution.  It  is  an 
educational  topic  of  such  wide  significance  that  must  be  pre- 
sented in  the  few  pages  that  follow. 

In  this  discussion  little  or  no  attention  is  given  to  the  con- 
stant tendency  to  decline  in  the  character  of  the  monastic 
life,  and  to  the  general  decay  that  occurred  throughout  the 
monastic  organizations  after  the  fervor  of  the  friar  movement 
had  expended  itself,  and  that  had  much  to  do  with  the  origin 
and  violent  character  of  the  Reformation  movement.  Such 
topics  are  aside  from  educational  interests  of  a  narrower 
character,  and  discussions  of  them  are  rendered  impossible  by 
the  scope  of  the  work. 

The  term  "  monasticism,"  in  its  original  significance,  could 
be  applied  to  the  hermit  alone.  It  is  frequently  used  in  a  sense 
that  would  exclude  the  mendicant  orders  (see  p.  330)  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  the  canonical  clergy  that  live,  as  do  also 
the  Dominicans,  under  the  rule  formulated  by  St.  Augustine, 
and  the  teaching  congregations  of  the  post- Reformation  period 


Middle  Ages  245 

(see  p.  420).  Yet  the  term  is  here  used,  as  it  is  commonly, 
in  its  most  general  significance,  to  include  all  these  forms. 
Through  these  various  stages  and  changes,  of  working  con- 
ception as  well  as  of  rules,  we  cannot  for  lack  of  space  trace 
the  monastic  development.  As  our  interest  is  primarily  in 
monastic  education  as  a  type,  and  especially  in  its  ideal  of 
education  as  a  moral  discipline,  our  interest  in  its  schools 
is  confined  for  the  most  part  to  that  period  preceding  the 
thirteenth  century.  Then  other  types  of  schools  and  other 
conceptions  of  education  arose.  But  from  the  sixth  to  the 
sixteenth  century  the  history  of  monasticism  is  the  history  of 
education. 

ORIGIN  OF  MONASTICISM.  —  The  primary  idea  of  mo- 
nasticism is  asceticism.  In  its  original  significance,  the  word 
asceticism  indicates  the  training  or  discipline  of  the  athlete  in 
preparation  for  the  physical  contests ;  in  its  figurative  use  it 
connotes  the  subjection  or  the  disciplining  of  all  bodily  desires 
and  human  affections  that  the  mind  and  soul  may  be  devoted 
to  the  interests  of  the  higher  life.  Found  in  some  degree  in  all 
types  of  religious  beliefs,  it  was  given  a  special  prominence 
in  many  of  the  types  of  beliefs  —  the  Jewish,  Persian,  the 
Egyptian,  and  several  of  the  Grecian  philosophical  sects  — 
with  which  Christianity  early  came  in  conflict.  In  all  of 
these  the  highest  ethical  thought  was  that  of  rising  to  spir- 
itual excellence  and  insight  through  the  mortification  of  all 
natural  and  material  wants;  through  fasting,  through  pen- 
ance, through  flagellation,  through  prolonged  and  enervating 
physical  exercise  or,  better  still,  through  inducing  a  quies- 
cence of  the  physical  nature  and  the  complete  eradication  of 
natural  desires  and  temporal  interests.  Thus  the  Christian 
ascetics  united  in  themselves  the  Stoic  virtues  of  contempt  of 
pain  and  of  death  and  the  indifference  to  the  vicissitudes 
of  fortune,  the  Pythagorean  customs  of  silence  and  of  sub- 
mission of  the  physical  nature,  and  the  Cynic  neglect  of 


246  History  of  Education 

the  obligations  and  the  forms  of  society.  In  the  teachings 
of  Christ  also,  in  his  command  to  take  no  thought  for  the 
morrow,  to  sell  all  one's  goods  and  give  to  the  poor,  to 
forsake  father  and  mother,  wife  and  children,  and,  above  all, 
in  the  frequent  exhortations  to  world-renunciation  and  to  the 
devotion  of  one's  self  to  the  service  of  spreading  the  Gospel, 
the  ascetic  idea  found  support. 

Similar  to  the  idea  of  asceticism,  though  not  quite  identical 
with  it,  —  for  it  formed  but  a  part  of  the  larger  thought,  — 
was  the  more  prevalent  motive  of  world-renunciation.  A  part 
of  the  root  idea  of  asceticism  was  the  belief — held  also  by 
Gnosticism  —  that  God  no  longer  ruled  in  the  world  of  matter, 
or  more  especially,  in  the  corrupt  social  life  around  the  early 
Christians,  and  that  consequently  the  true  Christian  life  was 
to  be  obtained  by  a  renunciation  of  this  world  —  an  isolation 
from  the  affairs  of  everyday  life.  To  this  extent  monasti- 
cism  was  merely  an  expression  of  the  desire  to  save  one's  self 
by  leaving  one's  fellows  to  their  sins  and  their  just  punish- 
ment. This  motive  prevailed  to  the  greatest  extent  in  the 
old  classical  society  ;  for  when  the  new  Teutonic  peoples  came 
into  control,  world-renunciation  was  replaced  by  the  motive 
of  world-conquest. 

One  other  important  condition,  which,  if  not  a  cause  of  the 
origin,  was  at  least  the  great  cause  of  the  development  of 
monasticism,  was  the  changed  character  of  the  Christian 
Church  from  the  third  century  on.  By  the  middle  of  the 
third  century  the  Church  had  become  largely  secularized  ;  by, 
the  opening  of  the  fourth,  with  the  conversion  of  the  empire 
(312,  322,  etc.),  Christianity  was  identified  with  society;  the 
customs  and  manners  of  the  world  were  the  customs  and 
manners  of  Christendom  ;  the  Christians  were  no  longer  a 
marked-off  or  distinctive  people.  It  happened  then  that  the 
clergy,  or  more  especially  the  monks,  became  a  body  of 
separated  people,  as  before  the  entire  Church  had  been,  living 
according  to  a  higher  code  of  morality,  possessing  distinctive 


Middle  Ages  247 

marks  of  their  profession,  and  abstaining  from  the  common 
interests  and  activities  of  society. 

Two  other  causes  of  the  development  of  monasticism  need 
but  to  be  mentioned.  One  was  the  persecutions  that  drove 
many  Christians  to  the  wilds  of  the  deserts  and  the  moun- 
tains ;  and  the  other  was  the  belief  —  almost  universal  in  the 
early  Church  —  that  the  second  advent  of  Christ  was  at  hand, 
and  that  consequently  no  interest  in  the  affairs  of  everyday 
life  were  to  be  considered  in  comparison  with  the  spiritual 
preparation  for  the  new  life  near  at  hand. 

Out  of  these  ideas  and  practices  of  the  religious  sects  of 
the  East  and  the  philosophical  schools  of  the  Greeks,  Christian 
monasticism  developed  naturally  upon  the  soil  where  at  this 
time  both  religions  and  philosophies  found  their  most  ardent 
devotees,  —  that  is,  in  Egypt.  However  early  this  movement 
may  have  begun,  its  coming  into  prominence  was  first  due  to 
Anthony,  who  in  305  fled  to  the  desert,  and  there  near  the 
shores  of  the  Red  Sea  subjected  himself  to  a  series  of  physi- 
cal penances  —  tortures  one  might  almost  say  —  that  were 
the  first  of  a  long  line  of  exacting,  ingeniously  devised,  and 
heroically  endured  practices  for  the  mortification  of  the  flesh. 
His  example  begot  many  imitations,  and  soon  one  of  his 
followers,  Pachomius,  had  collected  fourteen  hundred  followers 
who  desired  to  imitate  this  life  of  effacement  for  the  sake  of 
spiritual  benefit.  The  ideal  in  the  East  ever  continued  to  be 
that  of  isolated  life  as  a  hermit  or  anchorite.  Monasticism 
was  transferred  to  Greece  by  Basil  and  to  Rome  by  Atha- 
nasius  (341)  and  Jerome.  But  throughout  the  West  neither 
nature  nor  the  human  mind  was  favorable  to  this  life  of 
isolation  and  quiesence,  so  life  in  communities  —  the  cenobitic 
life  —  was  preferred  to  that  of  the  anchorite.  Such  com- 
munities during  the  fourth  and  the  fifth  centuries  became 
very  numerous.  Each  was  controlled  in  its  independent 
existence  by  its  own  rules.  Some  of  them,  it  is  true,  adopted 
the  rules  of  St.  Basil,  the  only  ones  ever  introduced  at  all 


248  History  of  Education 

generally  in  the  East ;  but  in  529  Benedict,  a  Roman  patncidN 
who  had  fled  from  the  scandals  and  corruption  at  Rome  to 
find  in  the  solitary  life  relief  from  such  wickedness  and  such 
temptation,  and  who  had  drawn  around  him  many  attracted 
by  his  own  life  of  spiritual  devotion,  organized  a  community 
under  a  set  of  rules.  While  these  were  designed  only  for  his 
own  group,  they  soon  became  of  universal  influence  through- 
out the  West. 

IDEALS  OF  MONASTIC  LIFE  AND  EDUCATION.  Asceti- 
cism an  Ideal  of  Discipline. — The  rules  of  monastic  life  might 
present  the  greatest  variation ;  its  ideals  were  everywhere  the 
same.  In  all  places  and  in  all  ages  its  dominant  ideal  was 
that  of  asceticism.  The  virtue  of  the  monk  was  often  meas- 
ured by  his  ingenuity  in  devising  new  and  fantastic  methods 
of  mortifying  the  flesh  through  fasting,  through  eating  in- 
sufficient and  inappropriate  foods,  through  taking  insufficient 
sleep,  through  wearing  insufficient  clothing,  through  assuming 
unnatural  postures  of  extreme  discomfort  and  maintaining  them 
sometimes  for  months,  through  uncleanliness  of  body,  through 
binding  the  limbs  with  ligatures,  through  loading  the  body  with 
chains  and  weights,  through  every  means  which  would  reduce 
or  even  destroy  the  natural  wants  or  would  produce  suffering 
from  insufficient  care  for  them.  That  at  the  same  time  this 
regime  might  also  destroy  or  weaken  the  mind,  and  in  any  case 
make  it  subject  to  abnormal  visions,  which  but  increased 
through  the  terror  of  such  temptations,  the  irrational  regime 
that  produced  them  seems  seldom  to  have  been  noticed.  All 
these  forms  of  discipline  were  for  the  sake  of  the  spiritual 
growth,  the  moral  betterment  of  the  penitent :  all  these,  as 
the  very  significance  of  the  word  "  asceticism  "  indicates,  reveal 
*he  dominant  conception  of  education  which  prevailed  through- 
out this  long  period,  —  the  idea  of  discipline  of  the  physical 
nature  for  the  sake  of  growth  in  moral  and  spiritual  power. 
The  ideals  of  monasticism  were  usually  summed  up  in  the  three 


Middle  Ages  249 

ideas  of  chastity,  poverty,  and  obedience,  or  more  technically, 
conversion,  stability,  and  obedience. 

Chastity.  —  The  idea  of  celibacy  went  far  beyond  the 
rigid  restrictions  of  the  early  Church ;  far  beyond  the  pro- 
vision of  celibacy  for  the  clergy.  The  ideal  was  the  con- 
demnation of  the  family  and  of  all  human  relationship  and 
affection.  These  were  now  to  be  completely  effaced  and  their 
places  taken  by  religious  relationship,  established  through  the 
monastic  rule  and  life,  and  by  spiritual  interests,  realized 
through  a  life  of  silent  isolation  and  of  continuous  devotion 
and  worship.  It  was  because  the  ties  of  relationship  —  the  love 
of  father,  or  mother,  or  child,  or  sister  —  represented  the  most 
powerful  and  least  readily  severed  influence  of  "  the  world  " 
that  monasticism  exerted  its  greatest  strength  to  destroy 
them.  Not  only  the  lives  of  the  saints,  but  also  the  writings 
of  such  a  great  and  noble  churchman  as  Jerome,  are  filled 
with  incidents  or  counsels  that  appear  to  us  now  almost  in- 
human, holding,  as  they  did,  that "  in  this  matter  cruelty  is 
only  piety." 

Poverty  meant  the  rejection  of  all  the  material  interests  of 
the  world ;  for  after  Christianity  became  the  state  religion, 
the  ordinary  Christian  could  continue  to  be  a  merchant,  a 
civil  or  military  officer,  or  have  part  in  any  vocation  devoted 
to  the  pursuits  of  earthly  interests.  Upon  entering  the  mo- 
nastic life  one  must  give  up  all  his  property  and  all  claims 
upon  the  rights  of  inheritance.  Except  on  consent  of  his 
superior  he  could  never  receive  anything  as  his  own  —  not 
even  a  letter.  Within  the  monastery  all  things  were  held 
in  common,  and  this  life  was  held  to  be  the  nearest  approach 
possible  to  the  commands  of  the  Savior  and  to  the  life  of  the 
early  Christian  Church.  It  was  through  the  influence  of  this 
monastic  ideal  of  poverty  that  during  so  many  medieval 
centuries  the  virtue  of  charity,  or  rather  of  mere  giving,  wa^ 
exalted  to  the  position  of  the  highest  Christian  virtue,  one  that 
would  cover  the  absence  of  almost  all  others. 


250  History  of  Education 

The  Ideal  of  Obedience  was  the  distinctive  characteristic  of 
the  cenobitic  life  as  opposed  to  the  hermit  life.  In  the  West, 
with  few  exceptions,  the  community  monastic  life  prevailed. 
In  entering  this  community  one  gave  up  all  right  of  per- 
sonal choice,  of  disposal  of  his  own  time,  of  determination 
of  his  own  interests.  His  will  was  completely  subjected  to 
the  will  of  his  superior,  and  in  this  last  surrender  and  efface- 
ment  was  found  the  perfection  of  moral  and  spiritual  growth. 
The  entire  routine  of  life  and  of  its  activities  and  interests 
was  determined  by  minute  precepts  formulated  in  the  rule  of 
the  house.  Since  one  gave  up  all  allegiance  to  other  institu- 
tions, such  an  ideal  was  the  surrender  of  the  last  evidence  of 
personality  and  the  negation  of  all  political  organization  of 
society.  This  self-effacement  was  to  be  complete,  and  in 
the  rules  most  generally  adopted,  minute  regulations  pur- 
sued him  in  his  most  secret  moment.  "  Submission  had  to 
be  prompt,  perfect,  and  absolute.  The  monk  must  obey 
always,  without  reserve,  and  without  murmur,  even  in  those 
things  which  seemed  impossible  and  above  his  strength, 
trusting  in  the  succor  of  God,  if  a  humble  and  seasonable 
remonstrance,  the  only  thing  permitted  to  him,  was  not  ac- 
cepted by  his  superiors;  must  obey  not  only  his  superiors, 
but  also  the  wishes  and  requests  of  his  brethren."  l 

Social  Significance  of  these  Ideals.  — Thus,  in  a  manner,  the 
monastic  ideal  had  its  negative  as  well  as  its  positive  signifi- 
cance. In  its  three  great  ideals  it  negated  the  three  great 
aspects  of  social  life,  —  the  family,  industrial  society,  and  the 
state ;  among  the  anchorites  and  in  many  cases  in  the  western 
monasteries  which  rejected  the  oversight  of  the  bishop,  it 
tended  to  negate  even  the  Church.  Certainly  it  represented 
a  type  of  disciplinary  education  which  left  out  of  account 
these  three  great  classes  of  needs  of  society  and  emphasized 
and  developed  those  moral  virtues  that,  in  a  restricted  sense, 
find  expression  largely  through  the  Church  and  religion. 

*  Montalemhert,  Monks  of  the  West,  Vol.  II,  p.  423. 


Middle  Ages  2$r 

On  the  other  hand,  monasticism  became  in  the  larger 
sense  an  educational  force  of  very  great  importance  to 
society  as  a  whole.  Each  one  of  these  monastic  ideals  in- 
troduced new  factors  into  social  development.  For  example, 
the  habit  of  obedience,  with  its  accompanying  virtue  of 
humility,  presented  as  great  a  contrast  as  can  be  imagined 
to  the  strong  individualism  of  the  barbarian  and  the  arrogance 
of  the  Roman.  The  ideals  and  habits  of  the  monks  entered 
into  the  reorganization  of  society  in  the  institution  of  feu- 
dalism, revealed  themselves  in  the  crusade  movement,  and 
probably  did  more  than  any  other  single  factor  in  the  sub- 
jection of  the  rude  Teuton  to  the  restrictions  of  civilization 
and  culture. 

THE  MONASTIC  RULES.  —  The  details  of  these  three 
great  ideals  are  expressed  in  a  code  of  rules,  in  the  earlier 
days  formulated  and  adopted  by  each  individual  monastery, 
but  after  the  sixth  century  almost  universally  patterned  in 
the  West  after  the  rules  of  St.  Benedict  (p.  248). 

It  is  proper  to  speak  of  the  spread  of  these  rules  as  being 
by  adoption,  for  there  was  no  general  organization  of  monas- 
teries under  Benedict's  rules,  but  each  remained  independent 
as  before.  Nor  were  these  rules  exclusive :  they  were  to  be 
supplemental  to  rules  already  adopted,  and  individual  monas- 
teries might  add  to  them,  as  they  did  very  generally  after  the 
eleventh  century.  These  rules  were  seventy-three  in  number: 
nine  relating  to  the  general  duties  of  abbots  and  monks; 
thirteen  to  worship  ;  twenty-nine  to  discipline,  errors,  penal- 
ties ;  ten  to  the  administration  of  the  monastery,  and  twelve 
to  various  topics,  such  as  reception  of  guests,  conduct  of 
monks  while  traveling,  etc.  The  distinctive  feature  of  the 
Benedictine  Rule  was  the  insistence  upon  manual  labor  of 
some  kind  added  to  the  implicit  obedience  which  the  monk 
must  render  the  abbot  in  the  performance  of  this  work.  In 
very  great  divergence  from  the  ideas  and  habits  of  the  monk 


252  History  of  Education 

Df  the  East,  indolence  was  termed  the  enemy  of  the  soul 
To  provide  against  this,  at  least  seven  hours  a  day  must  be 
given  to  some  kind  of  toil.  Thus  at  one  stroke  were  eradi- 
cated from  the  monasteries  of  the  West  many  of  the  evils 
that  had  come  into  monastic  life,  both  through  the  surrender 
to  temptation  coming  as  a  result  of  idleness  and  to  the  more 
subtle  evils  of  a  subjective  kind  arising  from  enforced  solitary 
confinement  and  a  brooding  over  imaginary  evils  by  minds 
little  adapted  to  profit  from  such  a  course.  The  Benedictine 
Rule  is  the  first  recognition  of  the  value  of  manual  labor  in 
education ;  and  though  the  conception  of  education  and  the 
value  placed  upon  the  manual  activities  in  this  moral  training 
were  both  very  different  from  those  in  our  own  time,  they 
were  a  great  step  beyond  the  position  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.  From  this  provision  came  most  of  the  social  bene- 
fits of  monasticism  in  the  West,  —  for  in  the  broadest  sense 
of  the  term  monasticism  was  an  education.  In  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  soil  the  monks  furnished  models  for  the  peas- 
antry ;  they  introduced  new  processes  for  the  craftsmen  in 
wood,  metal,  leather,  and  cloth ;  they  gave  new  ideas  to  the 
architect ;  in  a  way  they  stimulated  and  fostered  trade  among 
the  mercantile  class ;  they  drained  swamps  and  improved 
public  health  and  public  life  in  almost  every  way ;  and  be- 
sides offered  asylums  to  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  injured,  and 
the  distressed. 

The  rules  also  provided  that  two  hours  of  each  day  should 
be  devoted  to  reading ;  indicated  the  portions  of  the  Bible 
and  of  the  Fathers  to  be  read ;  provided  for  the  reading  of 
the  Bible  during  the  meal  hours ;  and  through  minute  rules 
saw  to  it  that  these  times  for  reading  were  not  to  be  wasted 
in  idleness,  in  sleep,  or  in  talking.  Naturally  the  greatest 
care  was  given  to  minute  specifications  concerning  worship ; 
the  occasion,  duration,  and  number  of  prayers  throughout 
the  day  and  night ;  the  song  services,  etc. 

To    the   rules    of    Benedict,    there   were  very   generally 


Middle  Ages  253 

added  during  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  more  rigid 
rules  by  a  variety  of  new  monastic  orders.  The  most  not- 
able of  all  was  the  Cistercian  Order  (founded  1098),  which 
carried  asceticism  to  a  greater  extreme  than  any  other  body. 
It  enjoined  absolute  silence,  provided  for  the  solitary  life  so 
far  as  possible,  simplified  worship,  and  in  their  churches  and 
ceremonials  applied  the  most  rigid  ascetic  rules  as  no  other 
order  ever  had  done.  Common  among  these  provisions  of 
the  eleventh-century  reforms  was  that  permitting  the  ad- 
mission to  monastic  orders  of  lay  brothers  exempt  from  the 
duties  of  religious  service  but  devoted  to  the  rough  work  of 
the  monasteries.  Though  these  formed  a  distinctly  unedu- 
cated class,  their  presence  permitted  a  greater  devotion  to 
study  and  to  literature  upon  the  part  of  the  more  educated. 
The  general  effect  of  this  provision  was  to  improve  the  lit- 
erary character  and  the  educational  work  of  the  monasteries. 

MONASTICISM  AND  LITERARY  EDUCATION.  —  As  we 

have  seen,  monasticism  was  not  primarily  a  scheme  of  education 
in  the  literary  or  school  sense ;  its  conception  of  education  was 
of  a  wholly  different  type, — one  relating  to  the  formation  of 
moral  and  religious  character  alone.  Many,  consequently, 
have  resented  any  criticism  of  the  learning  or  the  educational 
efforts  of  the  monks  as  altogether  invalid,  on  the  grounds 
that  an  institution  or  a  class  of  people  is  not  to  be  held 
responsible  for  that  which  it  does  not  explicitly  undertake.  It 
is  true  that  until  the  organization  of  the  teaching  orders  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  the  monastic  orders  did 
not  make  education  a  controlling  aim.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
also  true  that  from  the  seventh  to  the  opening  of  the  thirteenth 
centuries,  there  was  practically  no  other  education  but  that 
offered  by  the  monks,  and  that  the  Church  and  the  monastic 
institutions  were  responsible  for  the  fact  that  no  other  concep- 
tion of  education  existed  and  that  no  other  educational  institu- 
tions were  tolerated.  As  we  have  seen,  the  Church  through  its 


254  History  of  Education 

hostile  attitude  and  monasticism  through  its  new  and  revolu- 
tionary ideals  were  largely  responsible  for  the  complete  dis- 
appearance of  the  old  cultural  ideals,  for  the  neglect  of  the 
study  of  the  old  literature,  and  for  the  substitution  of  a  radi- 
cally different  type  of  educational  institutions  in  place  of  a 
rejuvenation  of  the  old.  Our  need,  however,  is  to  appreciate 
exactly  the  character  of  the  education  that  monasticism  of- 
fered to  the  world  for  some  six  centuries  in  lieu  of  all  others. 

The  historical  evidence  concerning  life  during  the  Middle 
Ages  is  such  that,  together  with  our  diverse  emotional  natures 
and  conflicting  religious  bias,  it  permits  two  interpretations 
of  most  points  connected  with  medieval  education  and  thought 
life.  Adhering  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  facts,  and  omit- 
ting partisan  bias,  let  us  look  at  both  sides  of  the  question 
under  the  topic  of 

Study  in  the  Monasteries.  —  One  must  ever  hold  in  mind 
the  fundamental  idea  of  asceticism,  previously  referred  to  as 
given  in  the  literal  meaning  of  the  word,  —  that  of  discipline 
or  training.  St.  Benedict,  whose  ideas  were  adopted  through- 
out Western  Europe  by  all  of  monasticism  that  comes  within 
our  view,  did  not  believe  that  the  mind  or  soul  should  be 
allowed  to  work  simply  upon  itself  to  produce  evils  quite  as 
great  as  those  fled  from,  but  that  it  should  ever  be  kept  busy. 
Hence  he  provided  for  seven  hours  of  labor,  chiefly  manual, 
though  it  might  be  literary,  and  for  from  two  to  five  hours 
of  reading  each  day.  Some  similar  provisions  had  been  made 
before  by  St.  Basil  in  the  East.  It  was  in  all  probability 
Cassiodorus,  the  great  statesman,  —  who,  as  prime  minister 
to  several  successive  barbarian  rulers  of  Italy,  preserved  so 
much  of  the  ancient  customs  and  who,  in  his  old  age,  turned 
monk,  —  that  formulated  this  idea  and  gave  it  to  the  Bene- 
dictines. From  these  provisions,  imposed  as  matters  of  disci- 
pline for  the  monks,  not  for  any^external  results,  came  most 
of  the  indirect  social  benefits ^-HBf»nasticism.  If  the  monks 
must  read,  they  must  be  taughf  to  read,  they  must  have 


Middle  Ages  25  $ 

books,  and  they  must  in  turn  teach  the  novices  to  read  and 
copy  manuscripts.  Hence,  without  any  word  in  the  rules 
concerning  schools  and  with  but  the  briefest  reference  to  the 
training  of  the  youth  accepted  for  the  monastic  life,  without 
any  direct  reference  to  the  copying  of  manuscripts  or  to  the 
study  of  literature  or  to  the  preservation  of  books,  all  of  these 
things  followed. 

But  there  were  other  causes  contributing  to  make  the 
results  of  this  one  provision  so  great  and  so  far-reaching. 
In  those  restless  ages  of  rude  culture,  of  constant  warfare,  of 
perpetual  lawlessness  and  the  rule  of  might,  monasticism 
offered  the  one  opportunity  for  a  life  of  repose,  of  contem- 
plation, and  of  that  leisure  and  relief  from  the  ordinary  vulgar 
but  necessary  duties  of  life  essential  to  the  student.  Hence 
the  youth  who  came  at  the  age  most  impressionable,  and 
most  given  to  the  pursuit  of  ideals,  was  influenced  toward 
the  life  of  reflection  and  of  study ;  those  bereft  of  family  and 
of  protection  found  in  the  monastic  cell  a  retreat  and  in  study 
a  consolation ;  while  those  worn  out  with  a  life  of  toil,  or 
shocked  by  the  brutality  and  callous  indifference  about  them, 
found  here  a  natural  resting  place  and  in  the  pleasures  of  a 
life  of  reflection  and  study  a  legitimate  reward  for  the  burdens 
they  had  borne. 

Thus  it  happened  that  the  monasteries  were  the  sole 
schools  for  teaching;  they  offered  the  only  professiona' 
training ;  they  were  the  only  universities  of  research ;  the} 
alone  served  as  publishing  houses  for  the  multiplication  oi 
books ;  they  were  the  only  libraries  for  the  preservation 
of  learning ;  they  produced  the  only  scholars  ;  they  were  the 
sole  educational  institutions  of  this  period.  In  each  of  these 
lines  their  activities  were,  to  be  sure,  meager ;  but  the  oppor- 
tunities were  meager,  and  however  great  the  needs,  the 
conscious  social  demands  of  the  times  were  more  meager  still. 

Every  monastic  rule  —  and  they  were  much  more  numer- 
ous than  this  brief  account  would  seem  to  indicate  —  eithei 


250  History  of  Education 

authorized  indirectly  or  commanded  directly  the  study  ot 
literature.  The  earliest  of  all  rules,  those  of  Pachomius, 
required  specifically  that  every  monk  should  read  and  write, 
and  provided  for  the  instruction  of  those  admitted  who  could 
not.  In  the  East  this  intellectual  requirement  was,  of  course, 
under  the  dominance  of  Greek  ideas.  The  latest  great  mo- 
nastic movement,  of  the  post-Reformation  period,  was  specific- 
ally an  educational  one.  The  supplementary  rules  added 
from  time  to  time  by  the  Benedictine  institutions  laid  more 
and  more  stress  upon  this  literary  aspect  of  their  life.  The 
most  famous  monasteries  in  every  country  were  those  noted 
for  their  learning  and  for  the  training  they  afforded.  Typi- 
cal of  these  were  those  of  Fulda  and  Hirschau  in  Germany  , 
at  Tours,  Corbie,  Bee,  and  Clugny  in  France ;  at  St.  Gall  in 
Switzerland ;  at  Glastonbury,  Malmesbury,  and  Canterbury 
in  England  ;  at  Monte  Cassino  in  Italy.  While  these  were 
exceptional  institutions,  there  were  many  that  adopted  as 
their  motto,  "  Love  the  study  of  Scriptures  and  you  will  not 
love  vice."  Some  of  the  monasteries,  especially  those  of  the 
type  mentioned  above,  carried  their  study  much  further  and 
included  the  study  of  the  Greek  classics.  At  St.  Gall,  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  tenth  century,  lectures  were  given  on  Cicero, 
Quintilian,  Horace,  Terence,  Juvenal,  Persius,  Ovid,  and 
Sophocles.  To  this  subject  we  will  return  later. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  other  side  of  the  question  and  con- 
sider the  meagerness  of  the  learning  of  the  monks.  We  may 
disregard  such  careless  judgments  as  are  founded  presum- 
ably upon  isolated  cases.  Such  is  the  argument  respecting 
the  probable  rarity  of  books  as  evidenced  by  the  extravagant 
prices  paid  for  occasional  ones  ;  the  argument  that  many 
monasteries  were  without  books,  because  mention  is  made 
of  an  occasional  monastery  in  a  dilapidated  condition  pos- 
sessed of  only  one  missal  (meaning  probably  several  copies 
ot  the  same  work);  that  all  monks  were  densely  ignorant,  or 
vicious,  because  occasional  ones  might  be.  There  are,  never 


Middle  Ages  257 

theless,  certain  general  conditions  that  must  be  borne  in 
mind.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  the  study  of  the  Scriptures 
only  that  was  commended,  and  though  the  term  Scriptura 
Sacra  indicated  more  than  we  understand  by  the  term  Holy 
Scriptures,  including  as  it  did  all  religious  writings,  it  did  not 
go  beyond  this.  Then,  again,  study  was  never  an  end  in  itself, 
but  simply  a  disciplinary  means  or  an  occupation  for  other- 
wise idle  moments ;  the  instant  study  became  an  end  or  a 
pleasure  in  itself,  the  very  purpose  of  its  introduction  into 
the  monasteries  was  negated.  Further,  it  is  just  as  erroneous 
to  argue  from  a  few  exceptional  cases,  such  as  St.  GalJ,  or 
Monte  Cassino,  that  "  to  the  monk  of  the  tenth  century  no 
knowledge  was  unfamiliar,"  as  to  argue  from  other  occasional 
instances  that  they  knew  nothing.  It  is  quite  evident  that 
many  monks  were  entirely  ignorant ;  that  many  monasteries 
gave  practically  no  attention  to  learning ;  and  that  those  which 
gave  attention  to  secular  literature  were  comparatively  few. 
Considering  the  opportunity  for  study  afforded  by  their 
leisure  time,  their  freedom  from  interruption,  their  knowledge 
of  the  language,  their  possession  of  the  few  books  existing, 
it  is  surprising  that  the  monks  made  so  little  advance  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  ancients  and  created  so  little  literary 
material. 

In  explanation  of  this  situation  two  further  considerations 
are  to  be  borne  in  mind.  To  most  of  these  monks,  save  those 
in  the  intellectual  centers,  the  study  of  ancient  literature,  dis- 
approved as  it  had  been  by  the  Church  for  several  centuries, 
represented  distinctly  the  interests  and  the  temptations  of  the 
world,  and  a  desire  for  such  study  was  indulged  in  only  at  a 
distinct  risk  or  as  a  positive  sin.  Such  study  was  a  gratifi- 
cation of  human  desires,  a  satisfaction  of  the  tastes  that  was 
distinctly  hostile  to  the  idea  of  asceticism.  The  uncertain  or 
changing  attitude  toward  the  ancient  classics  of  such  leaders 
as  Jerome  and  Augustine  would  lend  emphasis  to  the  idea 
that  all  such  learning  was  a  temptation. 


258  History  of  Education 

The  other  consideration  is  most  fundamental  of  all,  and 
applies    to  the  intellectual  life  of  the  entire  Middle  Ages. 
Quite  as  prominent  in  its  early  history  as  now  were  the  many 
divisions  within  the  Christian  Church.     Even  as  late  as  the 
period  of  St.  Augustine,  these  numbered  eighty-five  accord- 
ing to  his  own  enumeration.     As  a  result  of  this,  both  error 
of   judgment   and  the  state  of   intellectual  doubt   came    to 
be  looked  upon  as  sinful.     One  of  the  most  commendable 
traits  of   ancient   society  within  the    polytheistic    period  of 
Greece   or    Rome   or   in    the    later   skeptical    cosmopolitan 
periods,  was  toleration  of  beliefs.     To  this  fact  Christianity 
itself  in  its  early  days  owed  very  much.     But  to  the  Christian, 
tolerance  of  a  belief  that  might  mean  eternal  damnation  to 
those  enslaved  by  it  was  no  virtue  but  a  distinct  evil.     Hence 
the  very  basis  of  all  intellectual  progress,  the  spirit  of  inquiry 
and  the  desire  for  truth  or  reality,  irrespective  of  its  effect 
upon  emotional  states  or  religious  beliefs  held  as  a  matter 
of  faith,  was  wanting  to  these  ages.     Doubt  concerning  any 
belief  or  an  interpretation  of  a  fact  or  incident  established 
by  the  Church,  or  suggested  by  its  relation  to  the  welfare  of 
the  Church  and  the  further  development  of  this  age  of  faith, 
came  to  be  considered  of  as  great  demerit  and  evil  as  error 
itself.     The  validity  of  any  statement,  the  actuality  of  any 
alleged  instance,  came  to  be  determined,  not  by  any  applica- 
tion of  rationalistic  principle,  not  by  inherent  plausibility,  not 
by  actual  inquiry  into  the  facts  of  the  case,  but  by  its  agree- 
ment with  religious  feelings  or  beliefs,  its  effect  in  furthering 
the  influence  of  the  Church  or  the  reputation  of  a  saint  —  iu 
general,  by  its  relationship  to  matters  of  faith.     Thus  it  hap- 
pens that  the  chronicles  of  the  monks  and  the  lives  of  the 
saints,  charming  and  interesting  as  they  are  in  their  naivete^ 
their  simplicity,  their  trustful  credulity,  and  their  pictures  of 
a  life  and  an  attitude  of  mind  so  remote  from  ours,  are  filled 
with  incidents   given    as  facts    that  test  the  greatest  faithv 
strain   the   most  vivid   imagination,  and   shock  that   innate 


Middle  Ages  259 

respect  for  reality  that  it  is  the  purpose  of  modern  education 
to  inculcate. 

Schools  in  the  Monasteries.  —  Aside  from  the  training  of 
novices,  wholly  religious,  and  this  provision  for  reading,  there 
is  no  mention  direct  or  indirect  of  schools  or  of  instruction  in 
the  rules  of  St.  Benedict.  However,  Benedict  himself  had 
accepted  youth  to  train,  and  the  monastery  of  Cassiodorus, 
which  had  great  influence  over  the  Benedictines,  laid  much 
greater  stress  upon  intellectual  training.  Except  for  the  train- 
ing of  the  monks  themselves  or  of  the  youth  offered  for  mon- 
astic life,  the  monasteries  made  little  provision  during  several 
centuries  for  schooling  of  any  kind,  and  that  given  was  chiefly 
of  a  religious  character.  The  arts  of  reading  and  of  writing, 
of  singing  and  of  calculating  the  Church  calendar  were,  of 
necessity,  given,  though  probably  this  latter  was  reserved  for 
but  a  few.  Rules  supplementary  to  the  original  ones  of  St. 
Benedict  were  later  adopted  by  the  monasteries  of  the  order. 
Those  affecting  the  school  required  a  novitiate  of  two  years, 
and  stipulated  that  no  member  should  be  received  into  the 
order  under  eighteen  years  of  age.  As  boys  not  yet  in  their 
teens  were  often  accepted,  a  prolonged  schooling  and  disci- 
pline were  provided. 

Previous  to  the  later  portion  of  the  eighth  century  such 
schools  throughout  Western  Europe,  save  in  the  British  Isles, 
were  very  rudimentary,  and  the  character  of  learning  in  all 
the  monasteries  was  very  meager,  with  no  opportunity  for 
education  of  boys  not  destined  for  monastic  life.  Especially 
in  Ireland,  and  thence  transported  to  the  monasteries  and 
cathedral  foundations  of  England  and  Scotland,  a  knowledge  of 
classical  literature,  even  of  the  Greek  tongue,  was  kept  alive. 
This  learning  and  interest  in  intellectual  activity,  and  a 
breadth  of  view  that  was  wanting  during  this  time  to  the 
Continent  as  a  whole,  had  been  inherited  by  the  Irish  monks 
from  the  monasteries  of  the  Romanized  Celts  of  the  Continent 
and  of  Britain,  whence  St.  Patrick  came. 


26o  History  of  Education 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  eighth  century,  through  a  move 
ment  headed  by  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Great  and  his  min- 
ister Alcuin,  —  a  movement  to  be  discussed  later  (pp.  274-8), 
— monastic  schools  became  much  more  numerous  and  of 


A  MONASTIC  SCHOOL  FOR  INTERNS  AND  EXTERNS. 

better  grade,  and  very  generally  provided  an  education  for 
youth  not  intended  for  monastic  life.  Though  there  was 
a  decline  during  the  ninth  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
tenth  centuries,  nevertheless,  the  monastic  schools  so  dom- 
inated the  realm  of  education  that  the  eleventh  century 
is  known  as  the  Benedictine  Age.  This  term  is  also  fre- 


Middle  Ages  261 

quently  applied  to  the  entire  period  from  the  seventh  to  the 
eleventh  centuries.  It  was  not  until  the  eleventh  century 
that  there  was  any  education  to  speak  of  outside  of  monastic 
schools,  and  not  until  the  thirteenth  century  that  there 
occurred  marked  changes  in  the  character  of  education  given 
in  any  institutions,  for  until  then  practically  all  of  these 
schools  were  taught  by  monks.  During  all  of  this  period 
it  might  be  said  that  every  monastery  was  a  school,  and  that 
all  education  was  either  in  the  monasteries  or  under  the 
direction  of  monks. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  meagerness  of  this  learning ;  it 
may  be  well  to  notice  it  at  its  broadest.  Alcuin  tells  of  the 
work  in  the  school  of  his  master  Albert,  as  follows  :  — 

"The  learned  Albert  gave  drink  to  thirsty  minds  at  the 
fountain  of  the  sciences.  To  some  he  communicated  the  art 
and  the  rules  of  grammar;  for  others  he  caused  floods  of 
rhetoric  to  flow ;  he  knew  how  to  exercise  these  in  the  battles 
of  jurisprudence,  and  those  in  the  songs  of  Adonia ;  some 
learned  from  him  to  pipe  Castalian  airs  and  with  lyric  foot  to 
strike  the  summit  of  Parnassus;  to  others  he  made  known 
the  harmony  of  the  heavens,  the  courses  of  the  sun  and 
the  moon,  the  five  zones  of  the  pole,  the  seven  planets,  the 
laws  of  the  course  of  the  stars,  the  motions  of  the  sea, 
earthquakes,  the  nature  of  men,  and  of  beasts,  and  of 
birds,  and  of  all  that  inhabit  the  forest.  He  unfolded  the 
different  qualities  and  combinations  of  numbers ;  he  taught 
how  to  calculate  with  certainty  the  solemn  return  of  Easter- 
tide, and,  above  all,  he  explained  the  mysteries  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures." 

For  the  fact  that  schools  were  not  more  numerous,  and  that 
the  character  of  their  work  was  not  of  a  higher  grade,  the 
Church  and  the  monastery  must  not  be  held  altogether  re- 
sponsible. It  must  be  remembered  that  the  masses  of  the 
people  of  these  centuries  were  little  more  than  barbarians, 
and  that  they  certainly  took  much  more  naturally  to  warfare 
and  destruction  than  they  did  to  schooling.  That  learning 


262 


History  of  Education 


and  the  scholastic  traditions  should  be  preserved  at  all  in  the 
midst  of  a  society  not  settled  and  of  a  people  devoted  largely 
to  repelling  invasions  or  engaging  in  similar  excursions  for 
depredation,  was  no  inconsiderable  service. 

The  Copying  of  Manuscripts  and  the  Preservation  of  Learn- 
ing.—  Through  the  provision  requiring  a  certain  amount  of 
reading  each  day,  and  the  inclusion  under  the  head  of  manual 
labor  of  the  copying  of  manuscripts  for  those  who  were 

physically  unable  to  per- 
form heavier  tasks,  01 
because  of  inclement 
weather,  the  monasteries 
came  to  perform  quite 
as  great  a  service  to 
learning  as  that  involved 
in  the  establishment  of 
schools.  This  activity 
of  the  monks  continued 
from  the  earliest  formu- 
lation of  the  Benedictine 
rules,  for  the  conduct  of 
religious  services  de- 
pended upon  a  supply 
of  the  missals,  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  of  the 
writings  of  the  Fathers 

for  daily  reading.  An  architectural  feature  of  every  mon- 
astery was  the  scriptorium,  or  general  writing  room.  In 
many  monasteries  special  cells  for  copyists  were  later  added 
and  also,  in  many  instances,  a  library  and  a  schoolroom. 
That  this  work  of  the  copyist  was  not  merely  mechanical,  but 
was  designed  to  have  an  intellectual  and  a  moral  effect  as 
well,  is  indicated  by  the  words  used  later  at  the  consecration 
of  the  scriptorium  :  "  Vouchsafe,  O  Lord,  to  bless  this  room 
of  thy  servants,  that  all  which  they  write  therein  may  be 


A  CARMELITE  MONK  IN  THE  SCRIPTORIUM. 


Middle  Ages  263 

comprehended  by  their  intelligence  and  realized  in  theil 
works."  As  we  have  hitherto  seen,  this  dedication  would 
indicate  that  the  monks  were  expected  to  deal  with  religious 
writings,  but  it  was  true  also  that  the  classics  of  Rome  and 
a  few  of  those  of  Greece,  chiefly  in  Latin  form,  were  also 
copied.  If  this  had  not  been  true,  we  should  not  have  many 
of  the  classics  that  remain  to  us  to-day. 

Montalembert  goes  so  far  as  to  claim  that  the  knowledge 
of  the  classics  was  more  general  in  France  in  the  thirteenth 
century  than  it  is  at  the  present  time,  but  this  seems  a  great 
exaggeration.  While  it  is  not  true  of  the  period  we  have 
especially  in  mind  in  this  discussion,  —  that  from  the  sixth  to 
the  twelfth,  —  it  is  certainly  true  of  the  centuries  immediately 
preceding  and  immediately  succeeding  this  period  that  Church 
Fathers  and  Schoolmen,  who  wrote  treatises  intended  for  gen- 
eral circulation,  depended  upon  the  monastic  copyist  to  give 
these  wide  circulation. 

It  should  be  noted  that  many  of  the  nunneries  were  quite 
as  famous  as  were  any  of  the  monasteries  for  their  manu- 
scripts, and  some  for  their  schools  also.  This  work  of  copy, 
ing  was  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  abilities  and  inclinations  of 
the  female  recluses. 

Another  aspect  of  this  relation  of  the  monasteries  to  the 
literature  of  the  past  is  to  be  noted.  Many  of  the  extant 
manuscripts  devoted  to  the  chronicles  of  the  monastic  founda- 
tion, to  wearisome  comment  on  some  older  sacred  writings,  or 
to  the  disquisitions  of  the  Schoolmen,  are  written  on  parch- 
ment from  which  a  previous  writing,  usually  of  some  classical 
texts,  has  been  removed  by  chemical  or  mechanical  process. 
In  this  way,  undoubtedly,  many  classical  texts  were  destroyed. 
They  were  chosen  for  destruction  with  the  distinct  feeling 
that  they  were  unworthy  of  preservation.  Possibly  in  this 
way  some  ancient  texts  have  been  irrevocably  lost  for  all 
time.  This  destructive,  and  from  our  point  of  view  some- 
what barbarous,  custom  is  not  now  believed  to  have  been 


264  History  of  Education 

nearly  as  general  as  once  supposed.  It  is  thought  to  have 
flourished  only  after  the  thirteenth  century,  by  which  time 
duplicate  manuscripts  were  common.  Then  the  destruction 
of  ancient  writings  was  due  to  the  increased  demand  for 
parchment  consequent  upon  the  rise  of  universities  and  to 
the  interference  of  the  source  of  supply  in  the  East  by  the 
Saracen  conquests. 

The  Monasteries  as  Depositories  of  Literature  and  Learning. 
—  One  service  which  monasticism  performed  for  learning 
cannot  be  gainsaid.  Whatever  of  ancient  learning  and  lit- 
erature we  have  preserved  to  us  to-day  is  largely  owing  to 
the  monks.  Though  the  Arabs  added  much  during  the  later 
Middle  Ages,  even  then  such  additions  were  given  into  the 
possession  of  the  monks.  These  conservators  of  learning 
were  very  often  ignorant  of  that  which  they  preserved  from 
obliteration  ;  but  if  it  had  not  been  for  such  places  of  retire- 
ment and  of  protection,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  more  than 
the  merest  rudiments  of  the  classics  would  have  survived 
from  the  seventh  to  the  twelfth  century.  Through  all  this 
long  and  tumultuous  period  of  barbarian  aggression,  when  the 
remnants  of  classic  civilization,  along  with  the  fundamentals 
of  social  structure,  were  being  transferred  to  a  people  no  far- 
ther advanced  in  the  stage  of  culture  than  were  the  American 
Indians,  the  monasteries  served  as  the  safety  deposit  vaults 
of  learning,  whose  monkish  keepers  were  all  unaware  of  the 
precious  jewels  within  their  charge.  Occasional  glimpses  of 
a  rare  gem  but  convicted  them  of  sin  for  yielding  to  the 
temptation  offered  by  the  riches  or  the  pleasures  of  a  wicked 
world. 

While  in  the  early  Benedictine  rules  there  is  no  mention 
whatever  of  the  care  of  books,  such  mention  appears  in  the 
later  modifications  of  Clugny.  Special  rooms  for  libraries 
did  not  appear  until  much  later,  probably  during  the  univer- 
sity period,  but  special  provision  for  their  care  in  cloister  01 
cell  had  appeared  long  before.  A  monk  of  the  twelfth 


Middle  Ages  265 

century  expresses  clearly  the  attitude  assumed  toward  learn- 
ing by  monasticism  long  before  his  own  time  :  "  A  monastery 
without  a  library  is  like  a  castle  without  an  armory.  Our 
library  is  our  armory.  Thence  it  is  that  we  bring  forth  the 
sentences  of  the  Divine  Law  like  sharp  arrows  to  attack  the 
enemy.  Thence  we  take  the  armor  of  righteousness,  the  hel- 
met of  salvation,  the  shield  of  faith,  and  the  sword  of  the 
spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God." 

While  the  majority  of  monasteries  possessed  but  few  books, 
probably  none  outside  of  a  strictly  religious  character,  there 
were  yet  many  that  possessed  hundreds  and  some  few  whose 
volumes  mounted  to  the  thousands.  As  early  as  the  tenth 
century,  that  of  Novalese,  in  Italy,  was  said  to  have  had  a 
library  numbering  sixty-five  hundred  volumes  at  the  time  it 
was  destroyed  by  the  Saracens.  The  few  monasteries  espe- 
cially noted  for  their  learning  had  large  libraries,  and  gave 
particular  attention  to  the  collection  of  books  through  the 
exchange  of  duplicates  made  by  the  monks.  Among  these 
more  noted  foundations  there  existed  a  very  definitely  regu- 
lated system  of  exchange,  and  several  of  the  later  orders 
made  special  provision  in  their  rules  for  this  interchange 
and  for  the  requisite  work  of  copying.  Some  few  made  it  a 
means  of  financial  support.  This  was  first  definitely  accepted 
as  the  chief  means  of  support  by  the  Hieronymians  (see 
p.  390)  very  late  in  the  Middle  Ages.  During  the  later  cen- 
turies, in  cathedrals,  in  royal  palaces,  even  in  the  castles  of 
the  nobility,  collections  began  to  be  made  that  soon  were  to 
rival  those  of  the  older  foundations.  But  with  the  founding 
of  the  universities  and  finally  with  the  invention  of  printing, 
the  monasteries,  now  that  their  great  service  had  been  per- 
formed, ceased  to  give  as  much  attention  to  this  activity ;  or 
at  least  with  changed  conditions,  the  literary  character  of 
their  service  no  longer  appeared  conspicuous. 

The  Monks  as  Literary  Producers.  —  Though  the  range  of 
their  interests  was  not  broad,  yet  until  the  general  appear 


266  History  of  Education 

ance  of  vernacular  literature  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  cen- 
turies, the  monks  produced  practically  all  the  literature  of 
this  period.  This  included  the  lives  of  the  saints,  the  short 
moral  tales  or  sermons,  —  such  as  are  collected  in  the  Gesta 
Romanorum,  —  Biblical  or  patristic  comment,  and  monastic 
chronicles.  The  Schoolmen  appeared  about  the  same  time 
as  any  considerable  production  of  vernacular  literature,  and 
during  all  the  later  half  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  literary 
importance  of  the  monks  was  overshadowed  by  the  work  of 
these  classes.  To  be  sure,  the  greater  number  of  School- 
men  were  friars,  whom  we  have  included  in  this  discussion 
with  the  monks.  It  is  in  the  early  half  of  the  Middle  Ages 
— the  dark  ages — that  the  monks  had  this  unique  position 
of  including  all  learning  within  their  organizations. 

Unhampered  by  any  restrictions  upon  their  faith  or  their 
credulity,  with  the  tendency  to  doubt  and  the  faculty  of  criti- 
cism atrophied,  with  imagination  vivified  by  ascetic  discipline 
and  the  horrors  of  the  life  of  their  times,  the  content  of  many 
of  these  writings,  whether  ostensibly  historical  or  biographical, 
is  limited  only  by  the  fecundity  of  their  imagination.  His- 
tory was  ostensibly  written  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  interests  of  the  Church  ;  hence  the  accuracy 
of  fact,  the  assignment  of  motive,  the  judgment  of  results, 
were  all  determined  from  this  one  point  of  view.  As  a  result, 
while  much  of  our  knowledge  of  the  political  history  of  the 
times  comes  from  these  monastic  chronicles,  and  while  some 
of  them,  such  as  those  of  the  Venerable  Bede  for  England, 
are  most  excellent  and  furnish  the  chief  source  of  informa- 
tion for  particular  periods  or  people,  most  of  them  are  so 
full  of  inaccuracies  or  misinterpretations  that  their  statements 
must  be  rigidly  verified  by  cross  reference  before  being  ac- 
cepted. However,  in  this  respect,  as  in  others,  these  monastic 
chronicles  are  probably  superior  to  the  few  which  emanated 
from  the  courts,  for  the  monk  was  free  for  the  most  part  from 
the  motive  of  personal  aggrandizement,  being  led  astray 


Middle  Ages  267 

by  motives  of  a  wholly  different  character ;  namely,  those  oi 
adding  influence  to  the  Church  or  reputation  to  its  secular 
defenders.  The  importance,  however,  of  such  writings  as 
the  biography  of  Karl  by  Einhard  and  of  the  chronicles  of 
Paulus  Diaconus,  subject  as  they  are  to  many  of  these  limita- 
tions, can  be  better  estimated  when  we  remember  that  it  is 
said  no  records  were  kept  at  Karl's  court  because  of  the 
difficulty  of  finding  persons  who  could  write,  and  when  we 
recall  the  character  of  the  Carolingian  myths  that  grew  up 
to  be  accepted  as  history  in  the  centuries  following.  Re- 
garded, then,  as  exact  annals  of  the  times,  these  chronicles 
are  more  important  as  sources  of  information  concerning  the 
institutions,  manners,  laws,  and  ideas  of  these  ages.  The 
list  of  these  chronicles  from  the  monasteries  of  Italy,  of 
France,  of  Germany,  of  the  Low  Countries,  of  the  British 
Isles,  as  well  as  of  the  minor  European  countries,  is  a  long 
one  in  each  case,  and  it  is  from  these  that  our  knowledge  of 
these  few  centuries  is  largely  reconstructed. 

The  one  other  class  of  secular  writings  besides  the  chron- 
icles is  that  devoted  to  the  discussion  of  the  Seven  Liberal 
Arts  or  of  one  of  the  component  subjects.  This  needs  to 
be  discussed  from  another  point  of  view. 

The  Literary  Heritage  of  Monasticism :  The  Seven  Liberal 
Arts.  —  In  outline  the  Middle  Ages  possessed  all  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  few  preceding  and  the  few  succeeding  centuries ; 
in  its  content  this  knowledge  was  immeasurably  more  meager 
than  that  of  either  the  preceding  or  the  following  era.  It  is 
desirable  to  note  briefly  the  actual  character  and  content  of 
the  secular  learning  that  these  Middle  Ages  preserved  from 
complete  barbarian  neglect  and  destruction. 

The  knowledge  of  the  ancients  possessed  by  the  Middle 
Ages  was  far  from  being  in  its  ancient  form,  for  most  of 
these  writings  had  disappeared  ;  it  was  the  knowledge  of  the 
ancients  organized  in  a  much  abridged  form  by  a  few  learned 
men  chiefly  of  the  fifth  century.  At  this  time  the  expression, 


268  History  of  Education 

The  Seven  Liberal  Arts,  as  inclusive  of  all  learning,  came  into 
vogue.  Long  before  the  fifth  century,  however,  practically 
all  these  differentiations  into  subjects  had  occurred ;  it  was 
reserved  for  the  ecclesiastical  and  symbolical  tendencies  of 
the  Middle  Ages  to  limit  the  sciences  definitely  to  seven. 
As  we  have  seen  (pp.  1 36,  145),  Plato  had  shown  the  distinction 
between  what  now  came  to  be  called  the  trivinm,  including 
grammar,  rhetoric,  and  dialectic,  and  the  quadrivium,  includ- 
ing arithmetic,  geometry,  music,  and  astronomy.  Varro,  the 
most  learned  of  the  Romans,  wrote,  in  the  last  pagan  centuryv 
upon  the  liberal  arts  or  studies  which  included  all  of  these, 
together  with  architecture,  medicine,  and  philosophy.  In 
his  treatise  on  education,  Quintilian  omitted  from  the  liberal 
studies  two  of  them,  dialectic  and  arithmetic.  St.  Augustine 
(p.  242)  wrote  a  treatise  on  two  of  these,  and  stated  that  he 
intended  to  write  on  five  others.  Writing  in  the  same  period, 
Capella  completed  his  treatise  on  the  seven  in  which  all 
knowledge  was  presumed  to  be  summarized.  It  is  said  by 
Professor  Davidson,  however,  that  the  first  actual  use  of  the 
numeral  seven  in  connection  with  the  liberal  arts  was  by  Ra- 
banus  Maurus  in  the  ninth  century.  It  is  certain,  however, 
that  Cassiodorus,  in  the  sixth  century,  and  Alcuin,  in  the  gen- 
eration preceding,  had  justified  the  study  of  secular  subjects 
recognized  by  Rabanus  Maurus,  by  identifying  them  with 
the  seven  pillars  of  the  temple  of  wisdom. 

Martianus  Capclla,  mentioned  above,  was  one  of  the  best 
representatives  of  the  pagan  culture  in  North  Africa,  and  wrote 
(between  410-427  A.D.)  a  treatise  entitled  De  Nuptiis  Philo- 
logiae  et  Mercurii  (The  Marriage  of  Philology  and  Mercury), 
which,  throughout  the  first  half  of  the  Middle  Ages,  was  used 
more  widely  than  any  other  book  as  a  text  of  the  ancient 
learning.  The  god  Mercury  desires  to  marry,  and  all  the 
machinery  of  the  pagan  heaven  is  set  in  motion,  first  to  deter- 
mine to  whom,  and  then  to  celebrate  the  consummation  of 
the  marriage  to  the  most  learned  maiden,  Philology.  The 


Middle  Ages  269 

seven  bridesmaids,  or  handmaidens,  presented  by  Phoebus, 
are  the  Ars  Grammatica,  Ars  Dialectica,  Ars  Rhetorica,  Geo- 
metrica,  Arithmetica,  Astronomia,  Harmonia,  and  each,  as 
led  forward  in  the  ceremony,  gives  her  parentage  and  ex- 
pounds to  the  assembly  the  substance  of  the  art  typified 
These  speeches  contain  in  the  driest  of  text-book  form  prac- 
tically all  of  the  learning  of  the  schools  of  these  centuries. 
While  Capella  follows  the  order  and  arrangement  of  Varro, 
the  substance  of  his  works  is  borrowed  from  Cicero,  Pliny, 
and  Solinus,  and  from  less  important  writers. 

Boethius  (c.  480-524).  Though  no  more  prominent  than 
Capella  through  the  use  of  his  books  in  the  schools,  Boethius 
was  the  most  influential  of  all  the  learned  men  of  the  early 
Middle  Ages.  His  chief  service  was  to  give  to  several  suc- 
ceeding centuries  the  little  knowledge  of  the  Greek  writers, 
especially  of  Plato  and  Aristotle,  that  they  preserved.  His 
purpose  was  to  translate  all  the  writings  of  these  two  philoso- 
phers into  Latin ;  he  accomplished,  however,  only  a  small 
portion  of  his  task,  and  of  that  but  little  was  known  during 
these  centuries  of  darkness.  While  some  of  his  briefer 
treatises  gave  impetus  to  the  early  scholastic  movement,  his 
more  important  works  were  not  known  until  the  twelfth 
century.  He  gave  to  the  Middle  Ages  logic  and  ethics,  or 
the  basis  of  the  entire  dialectic  element  in  their  education,  and 
also  wrote  on  arithmetic,  geometry,  and  music.  These  works 
of  his  were  extensively  used  as  text-books ;  the  one  on  music 
continued  to  be  employed  in  some  universities  until  well  into 
the  eighteenth  century.  His  most  widely  read  and  influential 
work  was  the  Consolations  of  Philosophy,  written  during  his 
imprisonment  just  preceding  his  martyrdom  by  the  Emperor 
Theodoric,  whom  he  had  served  so  long  and  well.  Through 
this,  —  the  most  widely  read  secular  work  during  all  the 
Middle  Ages,  —  the  early  half  of  this  period  received  most  of 
its  ideas  of  the  ancient  philosophers  and  moralists.  Though 
his  writings  afford  practically  no  evidence  of  his  avowal  of  a 


270  History  of  Education 

Christian  faith,  he  was  accepted  by  the  mediaeval  Church  as 
a  Christian,  and  thus  his  writings,  the  last  product  of  pagan 
culture,  were  incorporated  into  the  traditions  of  the  Church. 

Cassiodonts  (c.  490-585),  the  prime  minister  of  at  least  four 
of  the  early  barbarian  emperors,  or  Gothic  kings,  and  thus 
to  them  the  interpreter  of  Latin  culture  as  well  as  the 
exponent  of  their  will  to  the  conquered  Romans,  derives  his 
chief  importance  from  his  political  activities ;  but  the  latter 
half  of  his  long  life  was  spent  in  a  monastery  which  he  himself 
had  founded.  Here  he  wrote  for  his  monks  commentaries, 
text-books,  and  an  educational  treatise  containing  a  presen- 
tation of  the  seven  liberal  arts.  For  the  world,  he  wrote  his 
chronicles.  Cassiodorus  laid  great  emphasis  upon  study  by 
the  monks,  urged  them  to  give  great  attention  to  classical 
writings,  directed  that  those  without  interest  in  letters  should 
devote  themselves  to  agriculture,  but  should  read  Cato, 
Columella,  and  other  writers  on  agriculture.  Much  of  his 
wealth  he  devoted  to  the  collection  of  manuscripts,  and 
through  his  influence  the  custom  of  copying  these  as  a  spe- 
cific part  of  the  work  of  the  monasteries  became  established. 
There  is  much  basis  for  the  view  that  the  preservation  of 
learning  in  the  monasteries  was  due  more  to  Cassiodorus 
than  to  Benedict.  To  the  influence  of  Cassiodorus  was  largely 
due  the  dissemination  of  the  custom,  begun  by  one  of  his 
monks  in  562  A.D.,  of  dating  from  the  Christian  era.  While 
the  lives  of  Boethius  and  Cassiodorus,  often  described  as  the 
great  twin-brethren,  ran  in  similar  channels,  had  similar 
objects  and  resulted  in  similar  influences,  yet  the  interest 
of  the  former  was  in  the  learning  of  the  past,  that  of  the 
latter  in  the  learning  that  was  to  be  in  the  future.  Hence, 
while  the  former  is  most  often  described  as  the  last  of  the 
Romans,  the  latter  becomes  the  first  of  the  new  type  of 
scholars  who  would  devote  all  learning  to  the  advancement 
of  the  interests  of  the  Church. 

Isidore  (c.  570-636),  bishop  of  Seville,  is  the  distinctive  rep- 


Middle  Ages  271 

resentative  of  the  mediaeval  learning.  For  his  monks  and 
clergy  he  composed  an  encyclopedia  called  Origines  or 
Etymologies,  which  purported  to  be  a  summary  of  all  knowl- 
edge worth  knowing.  Its  general  content  is  of  interest  as 
giving  some  idea  of  the  learning  of  the  times.  Books  I-III 
are  on  the  liberal  arts ;  IV  is  on  medicine  and  libraries ;  V,  on 
law  and  chronology;  VI,  on  the  books  of  the  Bible;  VII,  on 
the  heavenly  and  earthly  hierarchies ;  VIII,  on  the  Church  and 
on  sects  (sixty-eight  in  number) ;  IX,  on  languages,  peoples, 
etc.;  X,  on  etymology;  XI,  on  man;  XII,  on  beasts  and 
birds;  XIII,  the  world  and  its  parts;  XIV,  on  physical  geog- 
raphy ;  XV,  on  political  geography,  public  buildings,  land 
surveying,  and  road  making ;  XVI,  on  stones  and  metals ; 
XVII,  on  agriculture  and  horticulture;  XVIII,  on  vocabulary 
of  war,  litigation,  and  public  games ;  XIX,  on  ships  and 
houses,  dress  and  personal  adornment ;  XX,  on  meats  and 
drinks,  tools  and  furniture.  This  seems  a  broad  outline, 
capable  of  including  a  wide  scope  of  learning;  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  many  of  these  books  are  little  more  than 
catalogues  of  names ;  that  many  are  filled  with  odds  and  ends 
of  information  or  error ;  that  most  of  the  contents  is  drawn 
from  ancient  authors,  and  this  not  at  first  hand ;  that  its  dreari- 
ness is  about  as  far  from  inspiration  as  possible;  and  that, 
though  including,  as  it  did,  all  knowledge,  it  was  yet  in  one 
volume.  Though  familiar  with  portions  of  the  writings  of 
the  Greeks  and  Romans,  Isidore  forbade  his  monks  to  make 
any  use  of  them  whatever,  and  his  book,  through  the  excel- 
lency it  possessed,  partially  prevented  monks  or  students  in 
general  from  going  any  farther.  Such,  indeed,  was  the  gen- 
eral influence  of  this  entire  class  of  books,  of  which  numerous 
others,  by  the  few  learned  monks,  followed  in  subsequent 
centuries.  Some  of  these  are  to  be  noted  under  the  next 
topic. 

Content  of  the  Seven  Liberal  Arts.  —  Another  aspect  of  these 
intellectual  possessions  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  to  be  consid- 


I/. 


\J 


2 72  History  of  Education 

ered.  One  can  hardly  estimate  the  extent  and  the  value  ol 
their  learning  until  the  content  of  these  liberal  arts  is  noted. 
Geometry,  for  example,  always  included  the  rudiments  oi 
geography  ;  astronomy  included  physics  ;  grammar  included 
literature;  rhetoric  included  history.  The  actual  extent  to 
which  the  literature  of  the  ancients  found  any  place  what- 
ever under  grammar  and  rhetoric  is  a  question  to  which  very 
diverse  answers  are  given  and  which  is  very  difficult  to  decide. 
Isidore  and  Cassiodorus  knew  Greek  and  possessed  a  small 
library  of  Greek  classics ;  but  during  the  following  century 
the  knowledge  of  the  Greek  language  almost  disappeared 
from  Western  Europe.  It  is  believed  that  this  knowledge 
was  kept  alive  throughout  the  entire  Middle  Ages  by  the 
Celtic  monks  of  the  British  Isles  ;  but,  while  a  general  knowl- 
edge of  Greek  was  undoubtedly  preserved  there  much  longer 
than  on  the  continent,  it  only  in  rare  instances  survived  these 
centuries  of  the  dark  ages.  Alcuin  had  some  knowledge  of  the 
language,  but  little  of  the  literature;  though  some  of  his  pred- 
ecessors and  successors  had  more.  Even  the  indirect  knowl- 
edge of  Greek  literature,  through  Latin  translations  or  rather 
summaries  or  extended  references  by  such  writers  as  Boethius, 
was  very  meager,  as,  indeed,  was  that  of  Latin  literature. 
Some  of  the  writings  of  Virgil  and  of  Cicero  were  well  known. 
For  the  most  part,  however,  monasteries  possessed  but  very 
few  of  the  works  of  classical  authors.  In  the  book  list  of  the 
library  of  York,  Alcuin  mentions  Boethius,  Pliny,  Aristotle, 
Cicero, Virgil,  Lactantius,  Lucan,  Donatus,  Priscian,  together 
with  all  of  the  important  Church  Fathers  and  several  minor 
Latin  authors.  It  is  stated,  moreover,  that  this  catalogue 
shows  the  library  at  York  in  the  eighth  century  to  have  been 
greater  than  that  of  any  other  in  either  France  or  England 
until  as  late  as  the  twelfth  century.  The  extensive  use  of 
the  pagan  literature  in  the  monastic  schools  at  St.  Gall  during 
the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  has  been  mentioned  (p.  256), 
and  in  many  monastic  records,  the  mention  of  their  possession 


Middle  Ages  273 

of  certain  classical  works,  usually  those  of  Virgil,  Ovid,  and 
Cicero,  is  to  be  found  frequently. 

Nevertheless,  the  general  attitude  toward  this  literature 
and  its  study  was  distinctly  hostile.  Alcuin  tells  his  pupils 
at  Tours,  "  The  sacred  poets  are  sufficient  for  you ;  there 
is  no  reason  why  you  should  sully  your  mind  with  the  rank 
luxuriance  of  Virgil's  verse."  Showing  a  certain  devotion 
to  their  studies  on  the  part  of  some  monks  and  the  general 
attitude  toward  the  classic  writers,  Peter  the  Venerable, 
head  of  the  Clugny  house  (during  the  twelfth  century),  writes 
as  follows :  "  See,  now,  without  the  study  of  Plato,  without 
the  disputations  of  the  Academy,  without  the  subtilties  of 
Aristotle,  without  the  teaching  of  philosophers,  the  place 
and  the  way  of  happiness  are  discovered.  You  run  from 
school  to  school,  and  why  are  you  laboring  to  teach  and  to 
be  taught  ?  Why  is  it  that  you  are  seeking  through  thousands 
of  words,  and  multiplied  labors,  what  you  might,  if  you  pleased, 
obtain  in  plain  language  with  little  labor?  Why,  vainly  stu- 
dious, are  you  reciting  with  the  comedians,  lamenting  with 
the  tragedians,  trifling  with  the  metricians,  deceiving  with 
the  poets,  and  deceived  with  the  philosophers?  Why  is  it 
that  you  are  now  taking  so  much  trouble  about  what  is  not 
in  fact  philosophy  but  should  rather  (if  I  may  say  it  without 
offense)  be  called  foolishness  ?  " 

One  minor  regulation  in  the  rules  of  this  same  great  house 
(Clugny)  which  dominated  monasticism  for  two  or  three  cen- 
turies possesses  a  similar  significance.  It  was  customary,  as 
with  all  monastic  organizations  wherein  silence  was  enjoined, 
to  indicate  one's  wants  by  signs :  thus  the  desire  for  a  reli- 
gious book  was  expressed  by  extending  the  palms  of  the  hands 
and  then  making  a  movement  to  imitate  the  turning  of  the 
leaves  of  a  book ;  but  if  a  copy  of  one  of  the  classical  authors 
was  wanted,  the  wish  was  indicated  by  imitating  the  motion 
of  a  dog  scratching  his  ear,  thus  showing  the  proper  disposi- 
tion  toward  the  work  of  the  unbelieving.  Significant  also  is 


274  History  of  Education 

a  very  common  attitude  during  the  Middle  Ages  toward  Vergil, 
as  the  most  prominent  and  most  seductive  of  these  ancient 
writers,  wherein  he  is  portrayed  as  a  minion  of  the  evil  one, 
representative  of  all  the  temptations  and  wiles  of  this  world. 
In  fact,  there  arose  during  these  centuries  a  very  extensive 
Vergilian  demonology  that  gives  peculiar  significance  to  the 
office  of  the  poet  as  guide  of  the  nether  world,  as  portrayed 
by  Dante  at  the  close  of  this  great  historic  period. 

THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING  UNDER  CHARLES  THE 
GREAT  (r.  771-814).  —  The  one  important  aspect  of  educa- 
tional history  from  the  seventh  to  the  twelfth  centuries  that 
was  not  wholly  monastic  was  the  revival  of  learning  under  the 
Emperor  Charlemagne.  The  task  of  this  great  emperor  was 
to  unify  the  work  of  the  Teuton  and  that  of  the  Roman,  to  ad- 
just the  barbarian  Frank  to  the  Roman  culture,  to  transfer  to 
the  German,  who  was  hereafter  to  build  upon  it,  the  structure 
of  modern  society,  the  foundations  of  social  organization, 
Through  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  the  transfer  of  the  reli- 
gious element  had  been  made  and  the  barbarians  were  now 
orthodox  Christians  ;  through  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  estab- 
lished by  Charles  in  800,  the  political  and  legal  structure  of 
society  was  finally  accepted  by  the  Teuton.  There  remained 
to  be  added  to  these  forms  of  external  unity  that  internal 
unity  which  consisted  in  a  community  of  ideas,  of  language, 
and  of  the  cultural  elements  of  social  life.  To  bring  about 
this  union,  this  adoption  of  the  Latin  language,  and  the  learn- 
ing of  the  Church  and  of  such  of  the  Roman  culture  as  sur- 
vived, was  the  ambition  of  Charles. 

Naturally,  he  used  as  his  instruments  the  only  educational 
institutions  of  his  times, — the  monasteries.  The  old  Roman 
schools,  if  they  survived  at  all  in  the  chief  centers  of  provin- 
cial learning,  were  of  the  most  rudimentary  sort,  and  had  been 
assimilated  into  the  episcopal  or  monastic  schools.  But  this 
movement  instigated  by  Charles  was  of  more  than  monastic  sig- 


Middle  Ages  275 

nificance.  It  is  practically  the  only  one  by  a  sovereign  for  the 
fostering  of  education  among  his  people,  between  the  last  ot 
the  Roman  emperors  and  the  period  of  the  universities.  The 
work  of  Alfred  of  England  and  a  few  similarly  inclined  rulers 
was  purely  personal  and  local. 

In  782  Charles  called  Alcuin  from  the  cathedral  school  at 
York  to  the  Continent,  to  assist  him  in  his  attempt  to  revive 
~ah  interest  in  learning.  For  a  century  or  more  preceding 
this  time  Irish  monks  had  been  largely  instrumental  in  mis- 
sionary and  educational  activities  on  the  Continent,  and  the 
chaplains  of  the  court  of  the  Merovingian  kings  had  in  a  way 
attempted  to  foster  learning.  But  by  Alcuin  this  school  of 
the  palace  was  developed  into  a  definite  institution,  patron- 
ized by  Charles  himself,  by  other  members  of  the  royal  family, 
and  by  the  youth  of  the  nobility.  From  it  Charles  drew  many 
of  his  assistants  in  the  administration  of  his  great  empire. 
While  the  work  of  the  school  was  very  meager  in  its  literary 
character,  yet  its  importance  was  great  from  the  influence 
which  it  exerted  as  an  example.  In  787  Charles  issued  his 
capitulary  upon  schools,  which  has  been  accounted  by  some, 
though  in  a  somewhat  figurative  sense  we  believe,  as  the 
foundations  of  modern  education,  —  "  the  charter  of  modern 
thought."  It  commanded  the  study  of  letters  both  by  the 
clergy  and  by  the  monks ;  by  the  former,  since  it  had  come 
to  his  notice  that  great  numbers  could  not  even  read,  and 
hence  simply  repeated  the  church  services  by  rote,  and  since 
many  of  the  educated  showed  through  their  correspondence 
with  him  that  their  education  was  most  faulty  ;  by  the  monks, 
that  there  might  again  be  "  a  regular  manner  of  life  and  one 
conformable  to  holy  religion."  Two  years  later,  the  first 
capitulary  not  having  produced  the  desired  effect,  he  issued 
another,  prescribing  in  greater  detail  the  study  appropriate  to 
the  monks  and  the  clergy.  Several  capitularies  of  the  same 
year  are  devoted  to  raising  the  standard  of  character  of  the 
clergy,  both  morally  and  intellectually,  and  one  directs  the 


270  History  of  Education 

bishops  that  clerics  should  be  sought  for,  not  only  from 
among  the  servile  class,  but  also  from  among  the  sons  of  free- 
men. One  of  these  (that  of  789)  directs  that  "  every  monas- 
tery and  every  abbey  have  its  school,  where  boys  may  be 
taught  the  Psalms,  the  system  of  musical  notation,  singing, 
arithmetic,  grammar;  and  let  the  books  which  are  given 
them  be  free  from  faults,  and  let  care  be  taken  that  the  boys 
do  not  spoil  them  either  when  reading  or  writing."  Karl's 
officials,  the  missi  dominici,  were  empowered  to  visit  all  mon- 
asteries, to  enforce  the  provisions  of  these  edicts,  and  to  see 
that  the  monks  lived  according  to  their  rules.  At  least  in 
one  bishopric,  that  of  Orleans,  there  was  an  attempt  to  carry 
out  similar  provisions  in  regard  to  the  parish  churches,  and 
thus  to  form  a  system  of  elementary  schools.  This  gives 
basis  to  the  extravagant  claim  that  elementary  education 
for  the  lower  classes  was  more  general  in  France  in  the 
eighth  century  than  in  the  early  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. On  the  other  hand,  Gibbon  summarizes  the  whole 
movement  by  saying  that  "  the  emperor  strove  to  acquire  the 
practice  of  writing,  which  every  peasant  now  acquires  in  his 
infancy."  That  rapid  advances  in  learning  were  made  by 
the  clergy  and  the  monks  during  Karl's  time  is  evident ;  that 
these  efforts  were  not  altogether  satisfactory  even  to  Alcuin 
is  evidenced  by  his  great  desire  to  withdraw  from  the  court 
on  account  of  the  corrupt  life  of  the  members  and  the  rude, 
almost  barbarian,  character  of  society,  whose  constant  occupa- 
tion was  warfare.  In  794  this  desire  culminated  in  the  with- 
drawal of  Alcuin  to  the  abbacy  of  the  monastery  at  Tours. 
Meanwhile,  the  educational  movement  furthered  from  this 
and  other  monasteries,  as  well  as  from  the  court,  continued 
to  thrive  under  difficulties.  Of  quite  as  great  importance  as 
the  edicts  of  Karl  himself,  was  one  by  the  successor  of  Karl, 
issued  in  817.  This  reactionary  edict  restricted  the  work  of 
monastic  schools  to  those  boys  who  were  destined  for  the 
monastic  life  (oblati). 


Middle  Ages  277 

Alcuin  (735-804),  who,  on  account  of  his  influence  upon 
Karl,  as  seen  through  these  various  edicts,  is  generally  re- 
garded as  the  most  important  educator  during  the  first  halt 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  deserves  some  further  notice.  The  posi- 
tion which  Karl,  in  794,  bestowed  upon  Alcuin  was  the  most 
important  ecclesiastical  office  in  France.  The  monastery  of 
Tours  was  the  richest  in  France,  its  possessions  were  almost 
a  department  in  extent,  and  it  was  offered  as  a  reproach  to 
Alcuin  that  he  was  master  of  twenty  thousand  slaves.  This 
monastery  Alcuin  made  the  center  of  learning  in  France  as 
well  as  the  center  of  influence  in  the  Church.  To  him 
flockedthe  youth  desirous  of  learning,  and  from  the  monas- 
tery went  out  an  ever  increasing  stream  of  influence  in  the 
work  of  his  pupils  and  disciples  found  in  numerous  monas- 
teries throughout  the  land.  Alcuin's  ideas  of  education  grew 
rather  more  restricted  than  broader ;  he  rejected  the  study  of 
the  classical  literature,  to  which  as  a  youth  he  himself  had 
been  addicted  ;  emphasized  the  ascetic  aspect  of  the  monastic 
training ;  and  limited  his  pupils  and  the  monasteries  in  general 
to  the  study  of  the  sacred  writings.  On  the  other  hand,  while 
emphasizing  the  importance  of  the  study  of  the  liberal  arts, 
within  these  limits,  he  took  pains  to  build  up  a  great  library 
at  Tours,  sending  copyists  to  England  for  this  purpose,  and 
encouraged  a  like  activity  and  interest  in  the  other  monas- 
teries. Though  his  learning  was  probably  as  great  as  that  of 
any  one  of  his  century,  yet  his  scholarship  was  limited.  His 
great  service  was  to  bring  learning  to  the  support  of  the 
Church,  and  with  Karl  to  demonstrate  that  intellectual  train- 
ing was  quite  as  essential  to  the  welfare  of  society  as  efforts  at 
purely  religious  and  moral  betterment.  He  writes :  "  Despise 
not  human  sciences  [the  liberal  arts],  but  make  of  them  a 
foundation  ;  so  teach  children  grammar  and  the  doctrines  of 
philosophy  that,  ascending  the  steps  of  wisdom,  they  may 
reach  the  summit,  which  is  evangelical  perfection,  and  while 
advancing  in  years  they  may  also  increase  the  treasures  of 


•>78  History  of  Education 

wisdom."  Thus  following  Cassiodorus,  with  whose  writings 
he  was  familiar,  and  from  whom  he  borrowed  in  his  own 
writings  on  the  liberal  arts,  he  identifies  these  latter  with  the 
seven  pillars  of  the  temple  of  wisdom  and  thus  gives  this 
study  Biblical  sanction.  He  himself  wrote  on  Grammar,  on 
Rhetoric,  on  Dialetic,  on  Arithmetic,  and  on  The  Seven  Lib- 
eral Arts.  The  treatises  on  the  special  subjects  are  in  the 
catechetical  form,  —  that  of  question  and  answer,  —  so  famil- 
iar for  centuries  to  come.  Some  of  them  are  almost  puerile 
in  character.  The  arithmetic  consists  of  fifty-three  proposi- 
tions, of  which  forty-five  are  in  simple  reckoning.  Many  are 
in  arithmetical  and  geometrical  proportion,  with  little  or  no 
idea  of  principles  involved.  Several  are  trivial  catch  ques- 
tions of  modern  almanac  variety,  such  as  "  After  a  farmer  has 
turned  thrice  at  each  end  of  the  field,  how  many  furrows  has 
he  drawn  ? "  Alcuin's  reputation  as  a  scholar  depended 
upon  his  several  works  on  grammar. 

Rabanus  Maurus  (776-856)  was  the  ablest  and  most  noted 
pupil  of  Alcuin.  As  the  abbot  of  Fulda,  the  first  and  most 
important  monastery  and  school  in  North  Germany,  he  ex- 
erted an  influence  in  this  region  similar  to  that  of  Alcuin  in 
Frankland.  His  chief  work  was  an  encyclopedia  similar  to 
that  of  Isidore,  upon  which  it  was  founded.  Like  Alcuin, 
he  had  some  slight  knowledge  of  Greek,  but  being  of  more 
virile  mind  his  chief  interest  was  in  dialectic  instead  of  in 
grammar.  Dialectic  he  terms  the  science  of  sciences,  which 
teaches  us  how  to  teach  and  how  to  learn.  Another  impor- 
tant work  upon  The  Education  of  the  Clergy  contains  a  treatise 
on  the  seven  liberal  arts  and  hence  covers  the  entire  field  of 
education  of  his  day. 

Joannes  Scotus  Erigena,  or  John  the  Scot  (c.  8io-c.  875), 
the  most  noted  successor  of  Alcuin  in  the  palace  school, 
was  called  by  Charles  the  Bald,  about  845,  from  the  British 
(sles  as  Alcuin  had  been  by  Karl.  Of  greater  scholarship 
than  either  Alcuin  or  Rabanus,  he  introduced  the  study  of 


Middle  Ages  279 

the  Greek  language  and  brought  a  wider  knowledge  of  the 
ancient  learning,  and  especially  of  the  Greek  fathers,  than 
had  hitherto  been  found  among  the  Teutons.  With  a  much 
more  liberal  attitude  toward  the  pagan  authors,  with  whom 
he  had  a  fairly  wide  acquaintance,  he  made  the  work  of  Ca- 
pella  the  chief  text  in  secular  learning  in  the  monasteries. 
Of  more  vigorous  mind  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  he  laid 
more  emphasis  upon  the  study  of  dialectic  than  had  any  be- 
fore him,  and  being  somewhat  heretical  in  his  views,  he  stimu* 
lated  an  unprecedented  activity  in  theological  discussion. 
With  John  begins  the  long  conflict  between  realism  and 
nominalism,  though  there  followed  what  might  be  termed 
an  intellectual  interregnum  of  more  than  a  century.  The 
work  and  influence  of  Rabanus  Maurus  and  John  Scotus  lead 
directly  to  the  great  revival  of  intellectual  interest  in  the 
later  eleventh  and  the  twelfth  century,  which  will  be  dis- 
cussed under  scholasticism. 


§  3.     MYSTICISM.      EDUCATION   AS   A  SPIRITUAL    DISCIPLINE 

NATURE  OF  MYSTICISM.  —  One  other  type  of  education 
is  of  importance,  in  that  it  supplements  the  other  aspects  of 
the  disciplinary  conception  of  education.  Since  practically  all 
mediaeval  mystics  were  monks,  as  far  as  its  personnel  is  con- 
cerned, this  type  of  education  bears  a  close  relationship  to  the 
monastic.  Since,  through  its  very  nature,  mysticism  can 
have  influence  upon  but  few  people,  its  importance  is  far 
greater  in  the  history  of  philosophy  and  of  religion  than  in 
that  of  education.  While  its  presentation  need  concern  us 
but  briefly,  it  is  desirable  to  have  at  least  a  general  conception 
of  its  meaning  in  order  to  appreciate  the  intellectual  life  and 
the  conception  of  education  prevailing  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

As  a  type  of  life,  mysticism  differed  from  the  ordinary 
unreflective  life  religious  or  secular,  from  monasticism  the 
organized  religious  life,  and  from  scholasticism  the  organized 


iSo  History  of  Education 

intellectual  life ;  it  possessed  an  education  peculiar  to  itselt, 
For  an  age  such  as  ours,  educated  from  the  most  realistic  point 
of  view,  it  is  all  but  impossible  to  do  justice  to  the  tenets  of 
mysticism  ;  it  is  impossible  for  one  not  sympathizing  with  these 
views  to  understand  their  full  meaning ;  it  is  probably  impos- 
sible for  any  one  adequately  to  define  this  type  of  thought  in 
simple  terms.  Mysticism  was  the  belief  that  the  aim  of  life 
was  to  attain  to  perfection  of  the  soul,  to  the  highest  knowl- 
edge, and  to  spiritual  satisfaction  by  means  of  appropriate  train- 
ing. This  was  to  be  accomplished  through  the  elimination  of 
all  that  comes  through  the  senses,  by  the  withdrawal  of  the 
mind  within  itself,  and  through  the  identification,  in  the  world 
of  spirit,  of  the  individual  with  the  infinite  reality  or  whole. 
Mysticism  is  defined  by  a  modern  scientific  critic  as  "  a  state  of 
mind  in  which  the  subject  imagines  that  he  perceives  or  divines 
unknown  and  inexplicable  relations  among  phenomena,  dis- 
cerns in  things,  hints  at  mysteries,  and  regards  them  as  symbols 
by  which  a  dark  power  seeks  to  unveil,  or  to  indicate,  all  sorts  of 
marvels."  A  more  sympathetic  way  of  stating  the  same  idea 
is  that "  mysticism  is  the  consciousness  that  everything  that  we 
experience  is  an  element,  and  only  an  element  in  fact ;  i.e.  that 
in  being  what  it  is,  it  is  symbolic  of  something  more."  Philo- 
sophically, mysticism  has  been  defined  as  "  the  filling  of  the 
consciousness  with  a  content  (feeling,  thought,  desire)  by  an 
involuntary  emergence  of  the  same  out  of  the  unconscious.'' 
From  the  religious  point  of  view,  "  Mysticism  is  the  tendency 
to  approach  the  Absolute  morally,  and  by  means  of  symbols." 
There  is  both  a  philosophical  and  a  religious  element  in 
mysticism  :  philosophically,  it  is  an  attempt  of  the  finite  mind 
to  understand  the  ultimate  nature  of  things,  to  comprehend  the 
divine  essence  or  the  spirit  of  God  as  it  pervades  and  rules  all 
matter ;  religiously,  it  is  the  effort  to  come  into  actual  and 
immediate  communion  with  the  Deity.  To  the  mystic, 
"  God  ceases  to  be  an  object  and  becomes  an  experience." 
By  means  of  ecstatic  experiences  the  mystic  seeks  to  become 


Middle  Ages  28 > 

'  a  partaker  of  the  divine  nature."  As  a  religion,  it  be 
comes  the  most  intense  and  extreme  of  soul  experiences ;  as 
a  philosophy,  the  most  abstract  and  idealistic,  while  at  the 
same  time  possessing  a  strong  rationalistic  bent ;  as  an  edu- 
cation, it  becomes  the  most  extreme,  though  the  least  widely 
influential,  type  of  the  disciplinary  conception. 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  MYSTICISM  can  affect  its  educational 
bearing  but  slightly,  so  needs  but  to  be  suggested  here.  From 
the  nature  of  mysticism,  as  already  described,  it  will  be  seen 
that  it  is  not  a  definite  type,  but  rather  a  belief  in  various 
forms  among  different  people  and  at  different  times.  Less 
natural  to  the  religion  and  the  life  of  the  West  than  to  that  of 
the  East,  it  is  a  feature  essential  to  both  the  religions  and 
the  philosophy  of  the  latter.  Both  to  the  Buddhist  and  the 
Brahman,  the  phenomenal  world  is  an  unreality,  and  the  mys- 
tical absorption  of  the  soul  with  the  divine  the  highest  goal 
To  a  less  extent,  in  both  the  Persian  and  the  Mohammedan 
religion  mysticism  finds  a  place.  The  very  term  comes  from 
the  mysteries  of  the  Greek  religion,  from  which  the  idea  of 
shutting  in  things  not  to  be  revealed  was  carried  over  to  the 
idea  of  shutting  out  all  things  of  the  sense  in  order  that 
the  revelation  might  be  given.  In  Plato  the  idea  of  rising  to 
the  infinite  through  a  series  of  related  phenomenal  existences, 
and  the  finding  in  this  same  phenomenal  world  a  symbol  or 
type  of  the  spiritual,  gave  a  basis  for  the  belief  of  those  who 
would  seek  reality  in  this  world  of  ideas  by  fleeing  from  the 
world  of  phenomena.  In  the  writings  of  St.  John  and  St. 
Paul,  relating  to  Christian  doctrine  and  Greek  philosophy, 
and  full  of  the  technical  terms  of  the  Greek  mysteries,  the 
Christian  mystics  found  the  basis  for  their  beliefs.  In  the 
Alexandrian  schools  of  Philo  the  Jew,  and  later  in  the  works 
of  the  early  Church  Fathers,  similar  interpretations  are  found. 
Clement  made  knowledge  —  knowledge  similar  to  the  Socratic 
type,  "  the  thinking  of  holy  things  "  —  greater  than  faith 


282  History  of  Education 

This  knowledge,  though  aided  by  intellectual  training,  was 
in  itself  a  contemplation.  Christianity  was  looked  upon  as  of 
two  types  :  the  popular  irrational  faith  and  the  knowledge 
or  spiritual  Christianity  gained  through  wisdom.  Their  re- 
semblance to  the  dominant  heresy  of  the  times  —  Gnosticism 
—  rendered  these  teachings  somewhat  dangerous.  In  fact, 
throughout  the  Middle  Ages  mysticism  showed  a  tendency 
toward  rationalism,  certainly  toward  a  greater  freedom  of 
thought,  and  hence  toward  heresy. 

The  mediaeval  Christians  drew  their  mysticism  directly 
from  Plotinus  and  the  Neoplatonic  philosophy  of  the  later 
Alexandrian  schools  and  from  Dionysius,  who,  though  writ- 
ing in  the  late  fifth  or  early  sixth  century,  was  supposed  to 
have  been  a  disciple  of  St.  Paul.  John  Scotus  (p.  278)  re- 
vived their  teachings.  In  the  eleventh  century  a  new  type 
of  mysticism  sprang  up  under  the  leadership  of  the  monks  of 
St.  Victor,  distinguished  from  the  former  type  by  its  attempt 
to  harmonize  mystical  thought  with  scholastic  formalism  and 
terminology. 

While  the  type  of  education  represented  by  the  mystic  was 
not  of  general  application,  it  is  the  freest  from  the  restraints  of 
institutional  authority ;  it  lays  peculiar  stress  upon  reason  in 
its  development  of  the  contemplative  mind  and  gives  a  com- 
pleteness and  a  peculiar  interpretation  to  the  mediaeval  idea 
of  disciplinary  education. 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  MYSTICS  was  based  upon  a 
psychology  formulated  largely  by  Plotinus.  These  peculiar 
doctrines  appear  not  only  in  the  writings  of  Christian  mystics, 
but  color  most  of  the  treatises  on  the  soul  written  through- 
out the  Middle  Ages  by  numerous  Churchmen,  both  mystics 
and  Schoolmen.  In  these  treatises  their  psychological  ideas 
are  found.  The  soul  is  immaterial  and  immortal  because  it 
belongs  to  the  world  of  reality,  that  is,  of  ideas  or  spirits. 
Its  nature  is  threefold  :  the  lowest,  or  animal  part  is  bound 


Middle  Ages 

,ip  with  the  body  ;  the  logical,  or  reasoning  part  of  the  soul 
is  its  peculiarly  human  aspect ;  the  third,  the  superhuman, 
or  spiritual  part  is  that  by  which  or  in  which  man  is  identified 
with  the  highest  intelligence,  that  is,  the  divine.  Hence  there 
are  three  excellencies  of  the  soul ;  three  stages  of  experience. 

The  higher  stages  are  reached  by  a  withdrawal  from  the 
world  of  action  and  of  sense  into  the  world  of  thought.  The 
world  of  action  is  but  the  shadow  of  the  world  of  thought ; 
hence  the  latter  alone  is  reality.  Action  is  the  shadow  of 
contemplation.  "  Action  is  coarsened  thought,"  as  a  modern 
writer  formulates  it.  God,  reality,  as  transcendent  and  infi- 
nite, is  to  be  approached  and  apprehended  by  analysis  and 
abstraction,  through  thought,  through  the  shutting  out  of  all 
impressions  of  sense  and  a  sinking  into  one's  thought-self. 
"  The  way  to  God  is  to  descend  into  one's  self,"  said  Hugo  St. 
Victor ;  and  Richard  of  the  same  school  puts  the  same  thought 
in  similar  words,  "  If  thou  wishest  to  search  out  the  deep 
things  of  God,  search  out  the  depths  of  thine  own  nature." 

After  the  development  of  scholasticism  the  stages  of  mys- 
tical education  were  formulated  somewhat  more  definitely. 
The  first  step  was  that  of  purification,  or  purgation,  similar 
to  Aristotle's  idea  of  purgative  education  and  to  the  asceti- 
cism of  the  monks.  All  obstacles  to  the  vision  of  the  divine, 
consequently  all  impressions  of  sense,  all  material  and  worldly 
interests,  were  to  be  eliminated.  In  this  connection  an  elab- 
orate ethical  system  was  developed,  often  including  the  3ocial 
virtues  as  well  as  the  discipline  of  self.  The  second  stage 
was  the  illumination  of  life ;  as  the  first  stage  was  a  struggle 
with  the  outer  life,  so  this  was  a  struggle  with  the  inner  life. 
Good  works  are  now  performed  spontaneously  and  need  no 
thought.  The  whole  nature,  will,  intellect,  emotions,  was  to 
be  concentrated  upon  religious  ideas,  that  is,  spent  in  devo- 
tion. The  third  stage,  the  unitive  or  contemplative  life,  was 
the  goal  of  the  mystic,  and  was  to  be  reached  by  no  other. 
This  life  was  a  continual  approximation  to  the  life  of  God, 


284  History  of  Education 

m  which  man  beheld  the  divine  and  was  assimilated  in  it 
In  his  Eruditionis  Didascalicae,  probably  the  most  direct  and 
important  educational  treatise  by  a  mystic,  Hugo  St.  Victor 
indicates  these  three  stages  from  the  educational  point  of 
view  as  cogitation,  meditation,  contemplation.  Above  the 
ordinary  unreflective  life,  and  separated  from  it  by  a  gulf, 
comes  the  life  of  thought,  of  cogitation,  of  Aristotelian 
analysis.  Separated  from  this  by  a  similar  distance  is  the 
life  of  meditation,  approximating  the  Platonic  life  of  con- 
templation, and  resulting  in  the  knowledge  of  ideas  through 
dialectics.  Above  this  again,  now  Christianized  and  rendered 
more  spiritual,  is  the  stage  of  contemplation,  wherein  the 
vision  of  the  divine  is  vouchsafed  to  the  Christian  mystic,  and 
to  him  alone.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  that  in  comprehend- 
ing or  in  presenting  this  conception  of  life  and  its  appropriate 
education  there  arises  some  difficulty. 

Aside  from  this  philosophical  mysticism  there  was  a  prac- 
tical type,  very  similar  in  its  stages,  but  attainable  by  the 
unlettered  through  devotion.  The  importance  of  philosophi- 
cal and  intellectual  training  is  replaced  by  the  corresponding 
emphasis  placed  upon  symbolism,  which  was  of  minor  im- 
portance in  the  more  rationalistic  mysticism.  While  it 
was  this  latter  that  was  of  greatest  importance  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  it  is  only  the  symbolic  mysticism,  that  which 
finds  in  each  material  entity  a  portion  of  the  divine  and  a 
symbol  of  it  all,  that  has  any  considerable  influence  upon 
modern  education.  Even  then,  as  it  appears  in  the  teachings 
of  Froebel  (see  Chapter  XI),  it  has  little  connection  with  the 
disciplinary  conception  of  education. 

§   4.     CHIVALRY.      EDUCATION  AS  A  SOCIAL  DISCIPLINE 

ORIGIN  AND  NATURE  OF  CHIVALRY. —Chivalry  repre- 
sents the  organization  within  secular  society  of  those  recog- 
nizing the  highest  social  ideals  and  attempting  to  realize  them 


Middle  Ages  285 

through  definitely  established  forms  and  customs.  Chivalry 
was  to  the  secular  life  what  monasticism  was  to  the  religious 
life.  It  did  not  necessarily  include  all  of  the  nobility,  but 
only  those  who  definitely  accepted  the  highest  obligations 
of  a  social  character,  sanctioned,  as  these  obligations  were, 
by  the  Church.  Knighthood  and  the  chivalric  character 
were  not  inherited  as  nobility  was.  They  were  not  the 
gift  of  birth,  though  only  the  free  bora  and  those  who 
possessed  some  land,  and  who  consequently  could  command 
the  support  of  some  subordinates,  could  hope  to  attain  to  its 
distinctive  characteristics.  While  toward  the  close  of  the 
chivalric  period  knighthood  was  sometimes  conferred  in 
youth,  even  in  infancy  in  the  case  of  the  royal  family,  for 
the  most  part  it  could  not  be  attained  befoie  the  age  of 
twenty-one  and  then  only  after  a  long  period  of  training, 
through  which  the  knightly  traits  of  character  were  devel- 
oped, and  after  some  deeds  of  daring  that  revealed  the  most 
striking  of  these.  As  the  institution  of  chivalry  represents 
the  education  which  secular  society  received,  so  this  training 
formed  the  only  education  of  the  members  of  the  nobility. 
Like  all  education  during  the  Middle  Ages,  this  education  was 
a  discipline,  both  for  the  individual  and  the  social  class,  but 
one  in  which  the  intellectual  element  was  even  slighter  than 
that  in  monasticism  or  mysticism.  Says  Cornish  :  "  The  con- 
secration of  the  Teutonic  soldier  to  a  rule  of  life,  a  brotherhood 
and  equality  of  noble  service,  a  discipline  of  lifelong  obedi- 
ence, a  sense  of  personal  honor  and  rectitude,  though  inferior 
to  the  Roman  conception  of  civic  virtue,  was  an  education 
of  those  who  bore  rule  in  the  world,  and  made  them  more 
worthy  of  the  position  which  they  had  won  and  maintained 
by  force,  than  if  they  had  never  bowed  to  the  yoke  of  the 
Church  and  learnt  from  her  teaching  the  lesson  of  noblesse 
oblige." 

The  origin  of  chivalry  is  found  in  the  character  and  cus- 
toms of  the  Teutons,  influenced  as  they  were  by  the  structure 


286  History  of  Education 

of  Roman  society,  upon  which  they  built  modern  institutions 
and  by  the  Christian  Church,  which  directed  their  energies 
into  particular  channels  and  discovered  to  them  in  many  of 
the  teachings  of  Christianity  a  bond  of  sympathy  between 
the  Church  and  the  worthier  traits  of  character  of  the  bar- 
barians. In  the  centuries  between  the  final  overthrow  of 
Roman  society  and  the  definite  organization  of  society  upon 
the  feudal  system  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  cavalry 
had  come  to  be  the  dominant  military  force,  and  every  kingv 
baron,  lord,  or  freeman  of  estate  who  traveled  or  warred  on 
horseback,  and  hence  had  subordinates  to  serve  him,  was  a 
knight.  Knighthood  and  feudalism  were  coextensive  and  in 
many  features  identical,  for  their  origin  was  similar.  Chivalry, 
however,  as  it  was  organized,  and  in  the  form  in  which  it 
dominated  from  the  opening  of  the  Crusades  to  the  sixteenth 
century,  was  a  knighthood  within  a  knighthood,  an  organized 
life  recognizing  definite  ideals  and  rules  and  possessing  a 
special  training  that  represented  all  the  education  there  was 
for  the  ruling  classes  until  the  formation  of  definite  schools 
of  another  character  in  the  early  Renaissance  movement  of 
the  fifteenth  century. 

THE  IDEALS  OF  CHIVALRY  are  those  ever  since  accepted 
as  the  ideal  of  "  a  gentleman."  This  is  a  very  different  con- 
ception of  personal  virtue  from  that  of  classical  society,  and 
involves  some  radical  modifications  of  the  elements  of  the  early 
Christian  ideal.  In  speaking  of  the  character  of  the  leader 
of  the  first  Crusade,  Cornish  describes  the  knightly  character 
that  in  its  weakness  and  its  strength  is  not  much  less  typical 
of  the  entire  chivalric  period  than  of  the  earlier  century: 
"  We  observe  in  them  [the  knights]  reckless  courage,  per- 
sonal pride,  and  self-respect,  courteous  observance  of  the  word 
of  honor,  if  plighted  according  to  certain  forms,  disregard  of 
all  personal  advantage  except  military  glory;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  savage  ferocity,  deliberate  cruelty,  anger  indulged 


Middle  Ages  287 

in  almost  to  the  point  of  madness,  extravagant  display,  child 
ish  wastefulness,  want  of  military  discipline,  want  of  good 
faith  alike  to  Christians  and  infidels."  Under  chivalry  these 
ideals,  constituting  the  character  of  a  gentleman,  were  very 
much  more  definitely  formulated  than  in  modern  ages.  As 
thus  definitely  organized,  the  knight  summed  up  all  duties  of 
life,  under  his  obligations  to  God,  to  his  lord,  and  to  his  lady. 

In  one  respect  chivalry  performed  for  secular  life  a  service 
identical  with  that  performed  by  monasticism  for  the  religious 
life  :  it  dignified  the  idea  of  service  and  held  up  to  a  rude  and 
violent  people,  accustomed  both  to  resent  any  restriction 
upon  their  liberty  of  action  and  to  indulge  in  a  most  unre- 
strained manner  temper  and  anger,  the  ideal  of  obedience  to 
rule  and  to  personal  command.  While  this  organization  of 
society  had  its  demerits  as  well  and  led  to  or  sanctioned  a 
contempt  for  inferiors  and  a  regulation  rather  than  an  eradica- 
tion of  evil,  it  is  difficult  to  overestimate  its  value  in  amelio- 
rating the  crudities  and  the  barbarities  of  the  life  of  the  times 
through  the  new  attitude  toward  service  and  obedience. 
This  influence  was  probably  the  greatest  or,  at  least,  the 
most  immediate  that  Christianity  could  exert  upon  the  virile 
barbarism  of  the  Teutons.  And  chivalry  is  largely,  though 
indirectly,  the  result  of  the  influence  of  the  Church.  Especially 
in  the  Crusades,  —  and  with  this  movement  chivalry  first 
became  definitely  organized,  —  the  Church  consecrated  the 
dominant  militant  interests  and  characteristics  of  the  Teuton 
and  secured  their  devotion  to  its  interests.  This  ideal  of  a 
life  of  service  substituted  for  one  of  lawless  gratification,  if  it 
did  not  modify  radically  the  character  of  their  life,  constituted 
a  complete  change  in  the  direction  and  motive  of  their 
education. 

Reverence  for  superiors,  a  consideration  for  inferiors,  a 
gentleness  toward  all  weak  and  defenseless,  a  courtesy 
toward  all  women,  were  further  ideals  or  amplifications  of  the 
ideal  of  service  and  obedience.  A  greater  gentleness  oi 


288  History  of  Education 

manner,  of  consideration  for  others  in  deed  and  speech,  in 
fact,  a  general  amelioration  of  manners  followed  throughout 
all  classes  of  society.  While  it  is  true  that  this  courtesy  and 
consideration  were  enforced  by  the  constant  threat  of  mortal 
combat  if  violated,  and  that  this  was  a  regulation  of  evils 
that  sanctioned  the  violence  of  previous  times,  yet  it  was  a 
great  advance  to  have  definite  ideals  of  social  conduct  recog- 
nized by  these  classes  of  society.  Such  recognition  implied 
a  long  course  of  training,  a  definite  education  upon  the  part 
of  those  professing  to  follow  this  new  type  of  life. 

The  ideal  of  courage  or  bravery  required  no  specific  train- 
ing to  secure  its  development,  but  the  use  of  arms  necessary 
to  follow  this  life  did.  The  ideal  of  gallantry  or  courtesy  in 
itself  probably  needed  no  formal  instruction  that  it  might  be 
produced  ;  but  chivalric  gallantry,  the  proper  courtesy  and 
demeanor  in  company,  did  require  a  prolonged  training,  for 
its  forms  were  many  and  intricate  and  the  entire  chivalric 
life  was  one  of  most  punctilious  formal  observance.  The 
general  ideals  of  chivalry,  its  effect  upon  society  and  the 
individual,  and,  by  inference,  the  character  of  education 
demanded  are  indicated  in  this  summary  from  Cornish  : 
"  Chivalry  taught  the  world  the  duty  of  noble  service 
willingly  rendered.  It  upheld  courage  and  enterprise  in 
obedience  to  rule,  it  consecrated  military  prowess  to  the  serv- 
ice of  the  Church,  glorified  the  virtues  of  liberality,  good 
faith,  unselfishness,  and  courtesy,  and,  above  all,  courtesy  to 
women.  Against  these  may  be  set  the  vices  of  pride,  love  of 
bloodshed,  contempt  of  inferiors,  and  loose  manners.  Chiv- 
alry was  an  imperfect  discipline,  but  it  was  a  discipline,  and 
one  fit  for  the  times." 

Our  concern  is  in  the  organization  of  this  discipline  into 
an  educational  scheme,  such  as  furnished  to  the  free  and 
especially  to  the  upper  classes  in  society  their  only  organized 
education  from  the  seventh  to  the  fifteenth  or  even  sixteenth 
century 


Middle  Ages  289 

THE   EDUCAIIONAL   SYSTEM    OF    CHIVALRY. —  The 

education  of  a  knight  was  divided  into  two  distinct  periods : 
that  of  the  page,  which  covered  approximately  the  period  from 
the  seventh  to  the  fourteenth  year,  and  that  of  the  squire, 
which  covered  approximately  the  period  from  the  fourteenth 
to  the  twenty-first  year.  Every  feudal  lord,  of  every  rank, 
and  the  more  prominent  clerics  as  well,  maintained  a  court 
that  was  attended  by  the  sons  and  frequently  by  the  daughters 
of  the  subordinate  gentry  of  his  realm.  The  greater  gentry 
usually  sent  their  sons  to  the  court  of  the  king  or  sometimes 
to  that  of  one  of  their  peers.  Oftentimes  the  sons  of  kings 
served  in  their  own  home.  But  it  was  the  usual  custom  for 
all  ranks  of  chivalry,  a  custom  probably  growing  out  of  the 
earlier  custom  of  taking  hostages,  to  send  their  children  from 
home.  In  some  instances,  though  very  rarely,  schools  were 
established.  For  the  most  part  the  training  was  given 
through  a  definitely  organized  household  or  court  service. 
Obedience  and  service  were  thus  dignified  by  having  the 
noblest  born  conform  to  the  same  ideals.  For  during  this 
training  sons  of  knights  even  thus  waited  upon  the  table  and 
performed  similar  menial  offices.  By  the  same  process, 
gentleness  and  consideration  were  developed  in  those  in 
authority,  since  they  had  also  served,  and  since  their  serv- 
ants, those  in  personal  charge  of  the  table,  of  the  horses,  the 
dogs,  the  hawks,  the  bed  chamber,  the  stables,  etc.,  were  all 
persons  of  rank. 

The  page  began  with  simple  service  about  the  castle, 
especially  in  attendance  upon  the  ladies.  As  he  grew  older 
he  waited  upon  the  table.  This  duty  he  continued  to  perform 
as  a  squire ;  and  in  addition  to  these  a  great  variety  of  per- 
sonal services  to  his  lord.  All  culminated  in  the  office  of 
"  squire  of  the  body,"  who  was  the  immediate  personal  attend- 
ant upon  his  lord  in  battle  and  in  tournament. 

The  page  and  the  squire  were  supposed  to  learn  "the 
rudiments  of  love,  of  war,  and  of  religion."  The  "rudiments 


290  History  of  Education 

of  love "  were  courtesy,  kindliness,  gentleness,  pleasant 
demeanor,  generosity,  the  knowledge  of  the  very  elaborate 
formalities  of  conduct,  good  manners,  pleasant,  even  stilted, 
speech,  and  the  ability  to  turn  a  rhyme.  Love  was  to  protect 
the  youth  from  the  evils  of  anger,  envy,  sloth,  gaittony,  and 
excesses  of  all  kinds.  The  rudiments  of  love  were  to  be 
acquired  through  service  to  the  ladies  and  through  the 
teachings  of  the  minstrels.  It  often  happened  that  to  these 
things  the  squire  added  the  ability  to  play  the  harp  and  to 
sing.  The  squire  had  in  particular  to  devote  himself  to  the 
service  and  the  amusement  of  the  ladies  of  the  court.  He 
participated  in  their  hunting  and  hawking  expeditions,  in  the 
entertainment  of  the  court,  perhaps  in  the  reading  of  chiv- 
alric  literature  and  in  the  game  of  chess.  Chaucer  thus 
describes  the  squire  :  — 

" Syngynge  he  was  or  floytynge  [playing],  al  the  day; 
He  was  as  fressh  as  is  the  monthe  of  May. 
Short  was  his  gowne,  with  sieves  longe  and  wyde. 
Wei  koude  he  sitte  on  hors  and  faire  ryde ; 
He  koude  songes  make  and  wel  endite, 
Juste  and  eek  daunce  and  weel  purtreye  and  write. 
So  hoote  he  lovede  that  by  nyghtertale 
He  slepte  namoore  than  dooth  a  nyghtyngale  ; 
Curteis  he  was,  lowely  and  servysable, 
And  carf  biforn  his  fader  at  the  table." 

The  ability  to  just,  spoken  of  by  Chaucer,  was  the  chief  of 
the  rudiments  of  war.  The  justing  in  the  tournament  was 
the  chief  preparation  for  war ;  in  time  it  became  a  substitute. 
For  this  the  youth  was  trained  from  his  earliest  years  in  the 
ability  to  ride,  to  handle  the  shield,  to  wield  the  sword,  to  tilt 
with  the  lance,  to  cast  the  javelin,  to  exercise  in  armor,  —  in 
fact,  in  every  martial  exercise.  Tilting  at  a  revolving  target, 
either  in  boats  or  on  horseback,  was  much  practiced.  Hunt- 
ing and  hawking  furnished  training  for  warfare  as  well  as  the 
chief  amusements  of  the  nobility.  The  latter,  which  was 


Middle  Ages  291 

chiefly  the  hunting  of  water  fowl,  was  the  peculiar  privilege 
of  the  nobility.  This  training  in  the  rudiments  of  war  de 
veloped  an  ability  to  withstand  all  hardships  of  life  in  the 
open  air,  an  indifference  to  pain,  an  ability  to  withstand  hun- 
ger and  fatigue. 

As  the  period  for  knighting  drew  nigh  the  religious  aspects 
of  chivalry  were  emphasized.  Throughout  the  ceremony, 
which  usually  required  some  weeks  of  religious  service,  the 
Church  attached  the  nobility  to  it  and  sanctioned  and  directed 
their  warlike  activities.  The  prospective  knight  must  go 
through  ceremonies  of  purification,  his  sword  was  blessed  by 
a  priest,  and  in  the  ceremony,  frequently  if  not  usually  held 
in  a  church,  he  swore  "  to  defend  the  Church,  to  attack  the 
wicked,  to  respect  the  priesthood,  to  protect  women  and  the 
poor,  to  preserve  the  country  in  tranquillity,  and  to  shed  his 
blood  in  behalf  of  his  brethren." 

In  all  of  this  training  there  is  little  of  the  intellectual.  In 
the  earlier  centuries  of  chivalry  it  was  an  effeminacy  to  know 
how  to  write ;  in  the  later  centuries  the  knowledge  of  read- 
ing and  writing  both  among  men  and  women  of  the  upper 
classes  was  quite  common.  The  knowledge  of  the  French 
language  —  the  language  of  chivalry  —  was  quite  necessary. 
This  study  of  French  and  the  song  and  music  of  the  min- 
strels were  the  only  literary  elements  in  this  type  of  educa- 
tion. However,  there  were  occasional  instances  of  more 
marked  attainments. 

One  of  the  early  English  texts  gives  this  description  of 
the  aim  of  chivalric  education  :  "  To  lerne  them  [the  future 
knights]  to  ryde  clenely  and  surely ;  to  draw  them  also  to 
justes  ;  to  lerne  were  their  harenys  ;  to  haue  all  courtesy  in 
wordes,  dedes,  and  degrees ;  dilygently  to  kepe  them  in  rules 
of  goyinges  and  sittinges  after  they  be  of  honor.  Moreover 
to  teche  them  soundry  languages  and  othyr  lernyings  ver 
tuous,  to  harpe,  to  pype,  sing  and  daunce."  J 

1  Furnival,  Education  in  Early  England,  p.  ii. 


292  History  of  Education 


'-     §  5.    SCHOLASTICISM.       EDUCATION    AS    AN    INTELLECTUAL 

DISCIPLINE 

NATURE  OF  SCHOLASTICISM.  —  Scholasticism  is  the 
term  given  to  the  type  of  intellectual  life,  and  hence  of 
education,  that  prevailed  from  the  eleventh  to  the  fifteenth 
centuries  inclusive ;  that  was  largely  responsible  for  the 
origin  of  universities,  and  represented  the  work  of  these 
institutions  for  three  or  four  centuries ;  that  produced  a  vast 
literature ;  and  that  possessed  very  distinct  characteristics  of 
its  own  which  mark  it  off  from  modern  intellectual  life.  Defi- 
nite though  narrow  in  its  aim,  restricted  in  its  subject-matter, 
keen  and  subtle  in  its  method,  fruitful  in  its  outcome  in  the 
development  of  certain  mental  traits  and  abilities,  extremely 
limited  in  its  social  influences,  scholasticism  was  a  type  of 
intellectual  life  that  has  been  as  grossly  abused  and  as  much 
underestimated  during  the  centuries  following  its  overthrow 
by  the  Renaissance  movement  of  the  sixteenth  century,  as  it 
was  overvalued  by  its  own  devotees.  Scholasticism  is  not 
characterized  by  any  common  group  of  principles  or  beliefs, 
but  is  rather  a  peculiar  method  or  type  of  intellectual  activity; 
consequently  it  is  very  difficult  to  give  any  accurate  definition 
of  the  term.  Most  attempted  definitions  merely  give  descrip- 
tions of  its  external  features,  its  methods,  its  subject-matter, 
or  of  the  time  limits  within  which  it  prevailed.  Without 
attempting  a  further  definition,  let  us  consider  the  purpose, 
the  content,  the  form,  the  method,  the  defects,  the  objections 
to  scholasticism,  and  its  results  from  the  educational  point  of 
view. 

THE     PURPOSE     OF     SCHOLASTIC    THOUGHT.  —  The 

dominant  characteristic  of  the  intellectual  life  of  the  early 
half  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  the  attitude  of  unquestioned 
obedience  to  authority  ;  of  receptivity  to  all  doctrines,  state- 
ments or  incidents  sanctioned  by  the  Church ;  of  dependence 


Middle  Ages  293 

upon  formal  truths  dogmatically  established;  of  an  antago- 
nism to  any  state  of  doubt  or  of  questioning  or  of  inquiry 
as  wrong  and  sinful  in  itself.  By  the  eleventh  century  a  new 
attitude  was  necessary.  Heretical  views  had  crept  in  from 
the  East,  and  had  to  be  met  by  argument  as  well  as  by  force  ; 
a  few  men  of  exceptional  learning  for  the  times,  especially 
John  Scotus  of  the  ninth  century,  had  suggested  many  ques- 
tions that  could  not  be  ignored ;  the  study  of  dialectic,  which 
had  received  new  and  unprecedented  emphasis  from  the  time 
of  Rabanus  Maurus,  had  stimulated  an  interest  in  intellec- 
tual activity  and  in  the  logical  formulation  and  statement  of 
religious  beliefs ;  and  the  Crusade  movement,  with  its  break- 
ing down  of  the  isolation  and  the  rusticity  of  the  people  of 
the  West  through  their  contact  with  the  variety  of  beliefs  in 
the  East  —  all  these  stimulated  new  intellectual  interests  and 
made  it  necessary  to  state  religious  beliefs  in  new  forms. 
The  purpose  of  scholasticism  was  to  bring  reason  to  the  sup- 
port of  faith ;  to  strengthen  the  religious  life  and  the  Church 
by  the  development  of  intellectual  power,  and  by  silencing, 
through  argument,  all  doubts,  all  questionings,  all  heresy. 
Faith  was  yet  superior  to  and  anterior  to  reason.  The  credo 
ut  intellegam  ("  I  believe  in  order  that  I  may  understand  ") 
of  Anselm  was  the  dominant  principle  throughout  the  period. 
But  at  the  same  time  it  was  the  belief  that  there  was  no  con- 
flict between  reason  and  faith,  and  it  was  the  constant  pur- 
pose to  show  this  harmony  between  reason,  with  its  newly 
given  liberty,  and  the  doctrines  so  long  accepted  by  the 
Church.  Church  doctrines  had  long  been  formulated ;  they 
were  now  to  be  analyzed,  denned,  systematized.  As  in  the 
past,  synods  had  declared  that  the  sun  turned  round  the  earth, 
had  determined  the  exact  way  in  which  the  painter  should 
represent  the  beard  and  the  robes  of  a  saint,  so  now  in  a 
similarly  minute  manner  authority  prescribed  the  beliefs  of 
the  people.  It  was  necessary  that  authority  should  be  organ- 
ized and  present  a  systematic  completeness.  This  was  the 


294  History  of  Education 

purpose  of  scholasticism  in  its  broader  meaning  Since 
scholasticism  includes  the  questionings  raised  by  reason  as 
well  as  the  refutation  of  these  doubts,  or  the  solution  of  these 
problems,  the  entire  period  may  DC  looked  upon  as  a  conflict 
of  reason  with  authority  ;  and  scholasticism  is  often  so  de- 
fined. But  the  dominant  attitude  was  not  one  of  protest  but 
of  conciliation. 

Educationally,  the  purpose  of  scholasticism  was  included 
within  this  broad  purpose.  Scholastic  training  aimed  to  de- 
velop the  power  of  thus  formulating  beliefs  into  logical  sys- 
tem, of  presenting  and  defending  such  logical  statements  of 
beliefs  against  all  arguments  that  might  be  brought  against 
them,  without  at  the  same  time  developing  an  attitude  of 
mind  that  would  be  critical  of  the  fundamental  principles 
already  established  by  authority.  In  other  words,  relying 
upon  authority  it  sought  to  avoid  developing  the  attitude  of 
inquiry,  of  hostility  to  the  acceptance  of  any  statement  with- 
out a  preliminary  inquiry  into  its  rational  validity;  it  did  not 
desire  to  stimulate  the  attitude  of  honest  doubt,  which  in 
modern  educational  thought  would  be  considered  the  only 
proper  preparation  of  the  intellectual  soil  for  such  sowing 
of  the  seeds  of  truth  as  promised  fruitful  returns.  In  a  more 
general  way  the  aim  of  scholastic  education  was  to  systema- 
tize knowledge,  to  give  it  scientific  form.  But  to  the  scholastic 
mind  knowledge  was  primarily  of  a  theological  and  philosophi- 
cal, that  is,  metaphysical  character  and  the  scientific  form 
valued  was  that  of  deductive  logic.  In  this,  the  aim  of  scholastic 
education  was  brilliantly  successful;  for  there  were  elaborated 
most  exhaustive  systems  of  knowledge,  compassing  the  whole 
range  of  their  interest  in  a  most  effective  manner,  and  in  some 
cases  of  such  profundity  that  these  systems  have  few  rivals 
in  more  modern  times  and  yet  serve  as  the  basis  and  content 
of  the  intellectual  life  of  large  portions  of  modern  society. 

The  third  aspect  of  the  educational  purpose  of  scholasti- 
cism was,  then,  to  give  to  the  individual  a  mastery  of  this 


Middle  Ages  295 

systematized  knowledge,  now  reduced  to  propositions  and 
syllogisms  all  united  into  a  logical  whole. 

THE  CONTENT  OF  SCHOLASTICISM.  — From  the  previous 

statement  of  the  purpose  of  scholasticism,  it  follows  that  the 
content  expressing  the  realization  of  this  purpose  was  the 
complete  fusion  of  theological  and  philosophical  material. 
It  constituted  the  complete  reduction  of  religious  thought  to 
logical  form.  All  other  phases  of  knowledge  were  subsumed 
under  these,  for  secular  interests  as  such  had  no  standing. 
Since  this  organization  was  furnished  entirely  by  the  logical 
writings  of  Aristotle,  or  by  such  portions  of  them  as  were 
known,  scholasticism  is  often  defined  as  the  union  of  the 
Christian  beliefs  and  the  Aristotelian  logic.  All  legitimate 
knowledge  had  to  be  sanctioned  by  religion,  or  the  Church ; 
it  had  to  be  given  its  place  in  the  logical  system  of  scholastic 
thought  and  reduced  to  the  appropriate  logical  form.  To  do 
this  was  the  task  of  the  Schoolmen. 

The  primary  interests  of  the  times  were  in  the  great  doc- 
trines of  the  Church  concerning  justification,  predestination, 
the  Trinity,  the  freedom  of  the  will,  the  doctrine  of  the  eucha- 
rist,  etc.  To  give  these  and  similar  doctrines  their  proper 
philosophical  statement,  to  reduce  all  to  a  harmonized  system, 
to  present  them  with  answers  to  all  objections  to  the  ortho- 
dox view  and  with  refutations  of  all  unorthodox  interpreta- 
tions, constituted  the  content  of  scholastic  literature.  Now 
it  happened  that  at  the  same  period  in  which  circumstances 
emphasized  the  necessity  of  supporting  by  reason  the  beliefs 
of  the  Church,  a  certain  superficial  knowledge  of  the  funda- 
mental philosophical  problems  discussed  by  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle became  prevalent;  hence,  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
problem,  the  interpretation  of  the  orthodox  views  came  to 
depend  upon  the  acceptance  of  some  such  view  as  that  of 
Plato,  and  the  heretical  theological  views  became  bound  up 
with  a  metaphysical  doctrine  contradictory  to  that  of  Plato 


296  Hhtory  of  Education 

The  early  Schoolmen  were  not  aware  of  the  conflict  between 
the  views  of  the  two  great  masters  concerning  the  theory  of 
knowledge,  or  at  least  with  the  general  outline  of  Aristotle's 
view,  for  they  possessed  and  were  guided  only  by  those  por- 
tions of  Aristotle's  writings  that  related  to  the  logical  formu- 
lation of  thought,  more  specifically  the  Categories  of  the 
Organon.  Plato's  views  that  ideas,  concepts,  universals, 
constituted  the  only  reality,  became  accepted  by  the  orthodox 
Schoolmen  under  the  name  of  realism.  By  the  Schoolmen 
and  the  Church  such  general  concepts  were  regarded  as  the 
archetypes  in  the  Divine  reason,  and  the  various  phenomenal 
existences  and  the  species  were  regarded  as  but  copies  or 
reflections  of  these  thoughts  of  the  Deity.  The  view  that 
such  ideas  or  universals  are  only  names,  and  that  reality 
consists  in  the  individual  concrete  objects,  —  in  the  species 
of  Aristotle, — was  termed  nominalism.  The  conflict  between 
these  two  schools  of  metaphysicians  continued  long  and  loud, 
through  four  centuries  and  innumerable  volumes,  and  consti- 
tutes the  material  product  or  the  content  of  intellectual  life 
we  are  studying.  As  the  Carolingian  revival  of  learning  had 
attempted  to  bring  the  ordinary  learning  of  the  ancients, 
their  grammar  and  rhetoric,  again  into  the  service  of  the 
Church,  so  the  scholastic  revival  was  the  reintroduction  of 
ancient  philosophy  in  the  service  of  the  Church.  This  phi- 
losophy was  to  remain  under  the  control  of  ecclesiastical  doc- 
trine, already  determined  though  not  systematized,  and  in  case 
of  any  discrepancy  the  latter  was  always  the  standard  tc 
which  philosophical  doctrine  must  be  accommodated. 

But  these  views  were  of  more  than  metaphysical  interest ; 
they  compassed  all  interests.  Consider,  for  a  moment,  the 
application  of  the  views  to  some  of  the  fundamental  doctrines 
previously  suggested.  At  this  period  the  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation  had  peculiar  practical  importance,  on  account  of 
growing  heresies,  especially  the  Manichean,  which  held,  on 
account  of  the  belief  in  the  evil  of  matter,  that  Christ's  life 


Middle  Ages  297 

was  only  an  appearance  and  that  the  true  God  was  not  the 
God  of  the  Old  Testament.  If  ideas  or  substances  are  real- 
ities, as  the  realist  held,  and  are  hence  independent  of  the 
attributes  or  qualities  which  identify  them  in  the  concrete  and 
which  to  the  nominalist  constitute  the  only  reality,  then  it  is 
possible  to  distinguish  between  the  substance  and  the  accident, 
and  it  is  possible  to  conceive  of  a  change  in  the  substance 
without  any  corresponding  change  in  the  attribute.  Only  thus 
could  the  Church  justify  its  belief  in  the  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation,  or  the  actual  change  in  the  bread  and  wine  of  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  As  in  this  sacrament 
of  the  Church,  wherein  this  contact  between  Christ  and 
flesh  was  demonstrated  daily,  was  an  answer  to  the  heresy  that 
the  divine  could  not  have  lived  in  contact  with  a  wicked 
world ;  so  in  the  general  doctrine  of  realism,  with  its  distinc- 
tion between  substance  and  accidents,  the  general  relation  of 
finite  and  infinite  was  indicated.  Other  doctrines  with  their 
explanations  are  very  similar.  So  these  philosophical  views 
furnished  characteristic  solutions  to  all  theological  problems. 
Almost  every  heresy,  every  divergence  from  the  accepted 
view,  found  its  justification  in  the  nominal  position,  while  to 
the  realist,  the  orthodox  view  of  the  Church,  representing  as  it 
did  the  universal,  was  the  only  reality,  —  was  the  truth ;  the 
view  of  the  individual,  any  special  interpretation  which  he 
might  desire  to  give,  was  merely  an  "unsubstantial,"  temporal 
accident,  not  worthy  of  consideration  or  of  toleration.  To  the 
nominalist  this  view  of  the  individual  was  the  reality ;  thus 
both  his  religion  and  his  philosophy  became  heresy. 

This  is  but  one,  though  the  fundamental,  aspect  of  the  phi- 
losophy of  the  times.  It  is  sufficient  to  indicate  the  point  in 
which  we  are  here  interested.  The  content  of  scholasticism 
is  this  fusion  of  philosophy  and  theology,  in  which  all  theo- 
logical questions  —  and  all  secular  questions  became  theo- 
logical—  were  given  a  philosophical  form  and  a  most  formal 
and  extended  elaboration.  On  the  other  hand,  the  most 


298  History  of  Education 

abstract  of  metaphysical  questions  were  given  the  form  of  a 
concrete  theological  problem. 

The  educational  content  of  scholasticism  consisted  in  the 
most  noted  of  these  systematized  schemes  of  learning,  with 
the  innumerable  comments  upon  them.  During  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  were  constructed  the  two  most  noted 
of  these  :  The  Sententice  of  Peter  the  Lombard  (c.  i  loo-c.  1 160) 
and  the  Summa  Theologies  of  Thomas  Aquinas  (1225-1274). 
The  former  of  these  was  the  most  generally  used  text-book, 
and  the  most  generally  prized  summary  of  scholastic  knowl- 
edge of  the  remaining  scholastic  centuries ;  while  the  latter 
was  and  yet  remains  the  most  complete  and  thorough  presen- 
tation of  the  knowledge  of  the  times,  or,  to  be  more  exact,  of 
the  theology  of  the  Church,  and  was  accepted,  as  it  yet  is  by 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  as  the  orthodox  presentation  of 
its  beliefs.  Preliminary  to  the  mastery  of  such  summaries  of 
scholastic  knowledge,  scholastic  education  demanded  the 
mastery  of  the  science  of  logic  or  dialectic  as  a  preparation  for 
the  practice  of  the  art.  Therefore,  the  earlier  years  of  scho- 
lastic training,  after  a  brief  preliminary  study  of  grammar, 
were  devoted  to  this  study.  As  the  development  of  these 
studies  is  synonymous  with  the  growth  of  universities,  it  will 
be  further  noted  in  connection  with  a  subsequent  topic.  In 
general,  the  content  of  scholasticism  and  of  scholastic  educa- 
tion deals  with  the  abstract  and  immaterial ;  just  as  the  tend- 
ency in  current  education  is  to  reject  all  that  is  of  this  character 
and  to  deal  only  with  that  which  is  concrete  and  material  in 
character.  Hence,  in  respect  to  content,  present  education  and 
present  thought  are  so  opposed  to  that  of  the  period  under 
consideration,  that  there  is  no  tolerance  for  it  at  all,  and  hence 
it  can  be  little  appreciated. 

THE  FORM  OF  SCHOLASTIC  KNOWLEDGE  was  that  of  a 
scheme  of  thought  carefully  systematized  after  the  ideas  of 
Aristotelian  deductive  logic.  Logical  perfection  was  the  ideal 


Middle  Ages  299 

sought  for  in  the  completed  works;  these  perfected  works 
constituted  the  texts.  Even  in  more  rudimentary  phases  of 
the  study,  logical  arrangement  was  the  sole  aim.  The  idea  oi 
organizing  knowledge  according  to  principles  derived  from  the 
mental  condition  or  stage  of  development  of  the  student  is  an 
idea  of  much  later  development.  By  this  period  of  scholastic 
education  the  complementary  principle,  that  of  organization 
based  upon  the  logic  of  the  subject,  was  fixed  upon  education 
for  many  centuries.  Hence  in  the  introductory  subjects,  such 
as  grammar,  which  the  child  first  attempts  in  his  school  work, 
the  most  formal  logical  arrangement  was  adopted.  The  subject 
was  presented  to  the  child  for  his  mastery  in  the  order  in  which 
it  appeals  to  the  most  mature  mind.  Previous  to  this  time, 
the  catechetical  arrangement,  that  of  questions  and  answers, 
was  much  followed,  even  in  treatises  upon  the  seven  liberal 
arts.  During  the  earlier  scholastic  period,  the  dialogue  form 
was  yet  much  used.  But  with  scholasticism  the  systematized, 
logical  form  prevailed  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other.  A 
very  brief  statement  of  the  form  of  Aquinas's  great  work  may 
serve  as  an  example.  The  Summa  is  divided  into  four  parts, 
each  one  of  which  is  composed  of  a  number  of  questions, 
each  representing  some  great  doctrinal  truth,  for  example,  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  The  questions  are  divided  into  a 
number  of  articles,  each  representing  some  subtruth  under  the 
general  truth.  Following  the  statement  of  the  problem  under 
each  article,  the  objections  or  the  counter  solutions  of  the  prob- 
lem are  stated  in  order  (i,  2,  3,  4,  etc.),  then  follows  the  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  true  solution,  then  the  accepted  resolution 
of  the  problem,  and  finally  seriatim  answers  to  each  of  the  dif- 
ficulties raised.  All  this  is  given  in  condensed,  abstract  form, 
in  a  style  without  any  ornament  or  attempt  at  literary  embel- 
lishment, and  that,  too,  in  a  work  that  fills  several  folio  volumes. 
So  far  as  foi-m  alone  is  concerned,  the  most  exacting  require- 
ments of  modern  science  could  desire  no  more ;  for  it  is  most 
rigidly  scientific  in  form  though  wholly  deductive  in  character 


300 


History  of  Education 


THE  METHOD  OF  SCHOLASTICISM,  as  indicated  by  its 
form,  is  that  of  logical  analysis.  In  reality  there  were  two 
distinct  methods  used  by  tbe  Schoolmen  and  in  the  univer- 
sities as  well.  The  first  of  these,  the  one  in  most  general 


A  MEDIEVAL  DISPUTATION. 

approval,  was  that  of  the  Summa  just  given.  The  entire 
subject,  if  a  treatise  by  a  Schoolman,  or  the  entire  text,  if  a 
course  of  lectures  upon  a  text-book  or  subject  in  the  uni- 
versity, was  divided  into  appropriate  parts,  then  into  heads, 
subheads,  subdivisions,  etc.,  down  to  the  particular  propo- 
sition of  each  sentence.  Each  topic  was  examined  most 


Middle  Ages  301 

minutely  after  the  manner  of  Aristotelian  logic,  under  the 
headings  of  formal,  final,  material,  and  efficient  causes;  its 
literal,  allegorical,  mystical,  and  moral  meaning.  Thus  with 
analyzed  text  and  comment  upon  the  basis  of  each  division, 
the  student  was  overwhelmed  with  a  multitude  of  fine  meta- 
physical distinctions. 

The  other  and  freer  method  was  that  of  stating  the  propo- 
sition, then  the  several  possible  interpretations  with  the 
difficulties  of  each  interpretation,  and  finally  the  selection  of 
the  favored  one.  The  solution  favored  gave  rise  to  other 
problems ;  these  in  turn  suggested  varying  solutions  with 
their  appropriate  answers  and  their  subsequently  suggested 
problems  following  as  a  consequence.  So  far  as  approach- 
ing a  definite  conclusion  and  giving  order  and  system  to 
knowledge,  this  method  was  inferior  to  the  former;  but  in 
its  stimulus  to  thought,  to  the  freedom  of  inquiry,  and  to 
general  progressiveness,  it  was  far  more  beneficial  in  its 
influence. 

According  to  this  method  some  of  the  Schoolmen  stated 
their  theories  in  the  form  of  questions  instead  of  in  proposi- 
tions, thus  provoking  inquiry  and  stimulating  independent 
thought  rather  than  merely  suggesting  varying  ways  of  stat- 
ing an  accepted  proposition.  Thus  it  was  possible  to  pro- 
pose almost  any  view.  A  few  such  questions  from  the  Yea 
and  Nay  (Sic  et  Nori)  of  Abelard  will  illustrate  this  tend- 
ency and  the  daring  freedom  of  thought  sometimes  shown. 
Should  human  faith  be  based  upon  reason,  or  no  ?  Is  God  a 
substance,  or  no  ?  Is  God  the  author  of  evil,  or  no  ?  Can 
God  be  resisted,  or  no  ?  Do  we  sometimes  sin  unwillingly, 
or  no  ?  Does  God  punish  the  same  sin  both  here  and  in  the 
hereafter,  or  no  f 

It  became  customary  for  the  radical  thinker  to  protect 
himself  from  opposition  and  persecution  by  stating  that  pro- 
posed views  were  true  philosophically  but  not  theologically, 
or  vice  versa;  but  this  subterfuge  fell  into  disfavor  with  the 


3<D2  History  of  Education 

ecclesiastical  authorities.  While  the  customary  attitude  was 
one  of  complete  dependence  upon  authority,  and  while  a 
general  view,  accepted  as  orthodox,  tended  to  prevail,  yet 
there  was  considerable  variety  of  opinion  among  the  few. 
Though  the  prevalent  view  was  that  of  realism,  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  assign  any  given  content  of  principles  or  dogmas  as 
the  philosophical  content  of  scholasticism,  for  there  can  be 
found  at  least  a  suggestion  of  almost  every  phase  of  modern 
philosophical  thought.  In  a  similar  way  there  are  few 
modern  theological  views  but  found  some  exponent  at  some 
time  within  the  scholastic  period.  Scholasticism,  then,  is 
primarily  a  method  ;  the  systematization  of  all  thought  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  of  the  deductive  Aristotelian  logic,  the 
subjection  of  all  intellectual  interests  to  the  restrictions  of 
logical  form. 

DEVELOPMENT    OF    SCHOLASTICISM.  —  Some    of    the 

causes  immediately  operative  in  the  development  of  scholas- 
ticism have  been  enumerated  (pp.  292-3).  The  liberal  thought 
of  John  Scotus  Erigena,  who  declared  the  identity  of  true 
religion  and  true  philosophy  rather  than  the  subordination  of 
the  latter,  produced  little  effect  upon  his  age  because  he  was 
so  far  in  advance  of  it.  It  is  true  that  the  doctrinal  disputes 
in  dialectic  form,  especially  those  concerning  transubstantia- 
tion,  began  with  Scotus  and  his  follower  Beranger  (d.  1088), 
but  then  the  logical  and  philosophical  interests  were  wholly 
subordinate.  During  the  eleventh  century  this  conflict  be- 
tween realism  and  nominalism  became  definitely  formulated 
in  the  discussions  between  Anselm(c.  1034-1 109)  and  Roscel- 
linus  (d.  1 106).  Anselm,  called  the  father  of  scholasticism, 
first  as  abbot  of  Bee  and  later  as  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury (1070-1089),  expounded  in  a  number  of  writings  the 
realistic  position  and  its  application  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church,  especially  in  his  "  Monologue  of  the  method  in  which 
we  may  account  for  our  faith."  Roscellinus,  a  Breton  canon, 


Middle  Ages  303 

attacked  these  positions  in  regard  to  many  of  the  doctrines  ot 
the  Church,  especially  that  of  the  Trinity,  on  the  basis  of  the 
nominalist  position.  Roscellinus  held  that  logic  had  to  do 
only  with  the  right  use  of  words,  and  opposed  all  those  views 
which  made  the  traditional  realism  of  Aristotle  the  basis  of 
theological  belief.  These  disputes  were  continued  for  a  cen- 
tury or  more  in  various  places,  especially  in  France,  and  by 
various  Schoolmen  of  minor  importance.  The  number  of 
persons  attracted  by  these  disputations  was  so  great  that 
a  chronicle  states  in  regard  to  some  "that  if  thou  shouldst 
walk  about  the  public  places  of  the  city  and  behold  the 
throngs  of  disputants,  thou  wouldst  say  that  the  citizens  had 
left  off  their  other  labors  and  given  themselves  over  entirely 
to  philosophy." 

The  fate  of  Roscellinus,  who  was  martyred,  discouraged 
those  inclined  to  hold  the  nominalistic  view,  which  conse- 
quently did  not  reappear  in  its  extreme  form  until  the  latter 
part  of  the  scholastic  period.  The  critical  work  of  Roscellinui 
was  continued  by  one  of  his  pupils,  and  one  of  the  greatest  of 
the  Schoolmen,  Abelard  (Petrus  Abelardus,  1079-1142),  who, 
however,  opposed  the  extreme  nominalism  of  one  of  his 
teachers  as  he  did  the  realism  of  William  of  Champeaux 
his  other  teacher.  His  philosophical  position,  strikingly  sim- 
ilar to  that  of  Aristotle  —  a  fact  then  unknown — was  the 
compromise  view  of  conceptiialism.  According  to  this  view 
universals  are  existent,  though  not  independent  of  the  phe- 
nomenal form  in  which  they  exist,  save  as  conceptions  in  the 
divine  mind  before  creation.  Abelard's  position  regarding 
the  great  philosophical  question  was  a  conciliatory  one ;  but 
his  real  influence,  and  his  writings  in  general,  were  far  from 
it.  His  most  influential  work,  Sic  et  Non  (p.  301),  was  a 
collection  of  passages  from  the  Bible  and  from  patristic  writ- 
ings on  theological  questions,  designed  to  show  the  conflicting 
ideas  or  views  of  the  religious  and  ecclesiastical  authorities. 
He  gave  no  decision  concerning  the  solution  of  the  conflicting 


304  History  of  Education 

views,  consequently  inquiry  was  stimulated,  the  importance 
of  research  emphasized  ;  but  the  general  impression  was  that 
faith  in  the  unanimity  and  hence  the  reliability  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal authority  was  questioned.  While  the  theological  and  phil- 
osophical positions  of  Abelard  were  less  radical,  his  influence 
was  far  more  critical  and  far  more  destructive  of  unquestioned 
obedience  to  authority.  Reason,  he  held,  was  antecedent  to 
faith,  and  much  of  Christian  belief  could  be  supplied  by 
reason.  At  least  the  arrogance  of  ecclesiastical  authority 
was  shattered;  and  though  the  man  and  his  writings  were 
condemned,  his  life  blighted  by  persecution,  his  views  re- 
garded as  heretical,  his  influence  continued  to  exist  as  one  of 
the  most  powerful  forces  in  scholastic  thought  during  the 
following  period. 

The  thirteenth  and  the  fourteenth  centuries  constitute  the 
period  of  the  complete  dominance  of  scholasticism.  During 
this  period  philosophy  and  theology  seem  to  be  in  complete 
sympathy ;  the  widest  extension  is  given  to  philosophical 
thought  in  its  Christian  dress ;  theological  views  are  elabo- 
rated into  most  perfect  and  complicated  systems  ;  reason  and 
faith  are  in  fullest  accord.  The  causes  of  this  complete 
triumph  of  scholasticism,  the  perfection  of  its  system,  and 
the  wide  extension  of  its  limits,  were  twofold.  In  the  first 
place,  most  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  were  formulated 
and  established  as  a  result  of  the  previous  controversy. 
Certain  of  these,  wherein  complete  harmony  with  ancient 
philosophy  or  with  reason  was  impossible,  were  held  to  be 
beyond  the  limits  of  philosophical  discussion.  It  is  in  this 
respect  that  the  bondage  or  subordination  of  philosophy  to 
theology  is  seen  ;  for  within  certain  established  limits,  per- 
fect freedom  of  discussion  was  given.  The  second  of  these 
causes  was  the  recovery  of  most  of  the  writings  of  Aristotle, 
possessed  to-day.  The  largest  number  of  them,  however,  came 
at  that  time  through  corrupted  translations  or  in  the  form  of 
Arabic  commentaries.  Of  the  most  influential  of  these,  the 


Middle  Ages  305 

chief  work  of  Averroes,  Renan  remarked  that  it  was  "  a 
Latin  translation  of  a  Hebraic  translation  of  a  commen- 
tary on  an  Arabic  translation  of  a  Syriac  translation  of  a 
Greek  text  of  Aristotle."  Imperfect  as  were  these  texts, 
they  at  least  allowed  the  Schoolmen  to  perfect  their  sys- 
stem,  for  they  gave  them  the  complete  system  of  Aristotelian 
logic.  Besides  the  metaphysics  of  "  The  Master,"  his  phys- 
ics, psychology,  and  ethics  were  now  introduced  to  furnish 
new  material  for  scholastic  learning.  Through  the  modi- 
fication of  some  Aristotelian  principles,  the  scholastic  posi- 
tion concerning  the  harmony  of  faith  and  reason  prevailed 
throughout  this  period.  Its  educational  aspect  is  to  be  dis- 
cussed in  connection  with  the  universities.  Mention  can 
here  be  made  of  the  names  of  but  a  few  of  the  greatest 
among  a  host  of  educational  leaders  and  writers  and  intel- 
lectually powerful  men. 

THE  GREAT  SCHOOLMEN.  —  The  first  of  the  Schoolmen 
to  be  acquainted  with  the  entire  philosophy  of  Aristotle  and 
to  employ  it  in  the  service  of  theology  was  Alexander  of 
Hales  (d.  1245),  The  Irrefragable  Doctor,  author  of  Summa 
Theologia.  Vincent  of  Bauvais  (d.  1264)  was  an  encyclo- 
pedist. Bonaventura  (1221-1274),  The  Seraphic  Doctor,  a 
Platonist  rather  than  an  Aristotelian  in  his  philosophy,  rep- 
resented as  did  the  Victorines  of  the  preceding  century  the 
mystical  tendency  in  thought  and  education.  Albertus  Mag- 
nus (1193-1280),  called  The  Universal  Doctor,  was  the  first 
to  reproduce  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle  in  systematic  form 
and  with  constant  reference  to  the  Arabic  commentaries 
that  constituted  so  large  a  part  of  the  new  knowledge  of  the 
times.  Thomas  Aquinas  (1225-1274),  The  Angelic  Doctor, 
was  the  most  influential  of  all.  In  his  great  work  (pp.  298-9) 
he  represents  the  culmination  of  scholasticism,  and  is  its  author- 
itative exponent  both  in  that  period  and  in  subsequent  times 
Joannes  Duns  Scotus  (c.  1271-1308),  The  Subtle  Doctor,  was 
famous  as  a  founder  of  a  school  of  theology  rival  to  that  of 


306  History  of  Education 

Thomas ;  his  work,  however,  was  rather  of  a  critical  and  nega 
tive  than  of  a  constructive  character. 

The  long  line  of  great  Schoolmen  was  closed  by  William  of 
Occam  (1280-1347),  The  Invincible  Doctor,  who  revived  again 
the  nominalist  views.  His  work  was  rather  an  attack  upon 
the  entire  realist  system  than  a  formulation  of  specific  doc- 
trines. In  general  Occam  denied  that  theological  doctrines 
could  be  demonstrated  by  reason,  and  held  that  they  were 
wholly  matters  of  faith.  He  held  that  particulars  alone  were 
real  and  that  universals  were  mere  conceptions  of  the  mind. 
Thus  he  prepared  the  way  for  the  careful,  concrete  study  of 
the  objects  of  nature  and  of  the  mind.  On  the  other  hand, 
some  more  questionable  results  of  nominalism  were  also  evi- 
denced in  Occam's  view.  In  opposition  to  the  realists,  who 
posited  that  the  ideas  of  right  and  wrong  were  eternal  and 
unchangeable  because  copies  of  ideas  of  right  and  wrong  in 
the  Divine  mind,  he  taught  that  right  and  wrong  depended 
merely  upon  the  arbitrary  will  of  God,  and  that  "  moral  evil 
was  evil  only  because  it  was  prohibited."  He  rejected  the 
prevailing  Aristotelian  psychology,  holding  that  the  mind  was 
a  unity,  and  that  the  distinction  between  the  faculties  was  only 
formal  or  logical.  In  many  further  details  of  his  philosophy 
and  psychology  he  foreshadowed  the  views  of  modern  schools, 
especially  those  of  Locke  and  the  sensationalists,  and  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  oft-quoted  and  expressive  summary  of  these 
views,  — "  There  is  nothing  in  the  understanding  that  was 
not  previously  in  the  senses."  Politically  and  ecclesiastically 
Occam  represented  a  similar  protest  against  the  dominance  of 
the  authority  of  the  Church,  consequently  with  him  scholasti- 
cism entered  its  last  phase,  the  period  of  decline.  Whatever 
was  vital  to  the  spirit  of  progress  now  lived  in  nominalism  only, 
and  soon  passed  over  into  the  new  spirit  of  the  fifteenth- 
century  Renaissance.  The  old  scholasticism  persisted  (p.  405 ), 
but  it  no  longer  represented  the  progress  of  intellectual  life 
and  developing  educational  ideas  and  procedures 


Middle  Ages  307 

CRITICISM  OF  SCHOLASTICISM.  — That  scholasticism 
was  a  tremendous  advance  in  intellectual  life  beyond  that  of 
the  early  Middle  Ages  is  evident;  that  it  possessed  some 
decided  merits  peculiar  to  itself  is  at  least  suggested  by  the 
previous  discussion ;  that  it  served  as  the  only  education  of 
the  higher  or  intellectual  type  for  several  centuries,  and  pro- 
duced a  succession  of  great  men  unsurpassed  in  their  intellec- 
tual acumen,  has  been  noted.  For  all  that,  by  the  fifteenth 
century  scholasticism  reached  its  limits,  degenerated  into  mere 
form,  and  became  an  obstacle  to  further  progress,  so  that  it 
had  to  be  cast  aside  as  outgrown  and  useless  by  the  Renais- 
sance movement  of  that  period.  Though  revived  in  Prot- 
estant form  with  but  slight  variations  (see  p.  405),  scholasti- 
cism has  been  mentioned  only  with  execration  and  derision  by 
almost  every  writer,  except  those  of  Roman  Catholic  sympa- 
thies, during  all  the  subsequent  centuries,  until  the  nineteenth, 
at  least.  This  was  especially  true  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth century  philosophers,  who  found  it  necessary  to  over- 
throw the  methods  of  scholasticism  before  progress  could  be 
made.  Hobbes  held  that  "  those  who  wrote  volumes  of  such 
stuff  were  mad,  and  tended  to  make  others  so ; "  that  "  the 
common  sort  of  men  seldom  speak  insignificantly  and  are, 
therefore,  by  those  other  egregious  people  [the  Schoolmen] 
counted  idiots."  Bacon  declared:  — 

"This  kind  of  degenerate  learning  did  chiefly  reign  amongst 
the  Schoolmen  :  who  having  sharp  and  strong  wits,  and  abun- 
dance of  leisure,  and  small  variety  of  reading,  but  their  wits 
being  shut  up  in  the  cells  of  a  few  authors  (chiefly  Aristotle 
their  dictator)  as  their  persons  were  shut  up  in  the  cells  of 
monasteries  and  colleges,  and  knowing  little  history,  either  of 
nature  or  time,  did  out  of  no  great  quantity  of  matter  and  in- 
finite agitation  of  wit  spin  out  unto  us  those  laborious  webs  of 
learning  which  are  extant  in  their  books.  For  the  wit  and 
mind  of  man,  if  it  work  upon  matter,  which  is  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  creatures  of  God,  worketh  according  to  the  stuff, 
and  is  limited  thereby ;  but  if  it  work  upon  itself,  as  the  spider 


308  History  of  Education 

worketh  his  web,  then  it  is  endless  and  brings  forth  indeed 
cobwebs  of  learning,  admirable  for  the  fineness  of  thread  and 
work,  but  of  no  substance  or  profit." 


Hal  lam  said  that  their  works  consisted  of  "worthless  men- 
tal abstractions,  of  axioms  assumed  at  haphazard,  of  distinc- 
tions destitute  of  the  smallest  foundation,  and  with  the  horrors 
of  a  barbarous  terminology."  Criticisms  such  as  these  could 
be  found  without  limit. 

A  factor  in  all  of  these  criticisms  is  the  scholastic  use  of 
terms ;  but  this  for  the  most  part  is  but  the  same  criticism 
that  can  be  made  against  the  philosopher  or  metaphysician 
at  all  times.  Undoubtedly  from  the  extent  of  their  discus- 
sions, and  the  fact  that  these  discussions  contained  all  the 
learning  of  these  centuries,  this  terminology  was  vastly  ex- 
tended ;  but  there  is  no  real  criticism  to  be  found  in  this. 
The  criticism  against  their  literary  style  and  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  language  induced  has  a  basis  in  fact;  but 
from  the  very  nature  of  their  interests  any  other  style  would 
have  been  out  of  harmony.  A  more  fundamental  criticism 
is  that  they  dealt  altogether  with  unrealities.  But  they  dealt 
with  the  same  material  and  used  much  the  same  methods  as 
does  the  philosopher  or  theologian  of  modern  times.  Criti- 
cism against  the  one  lies  also  against  the  other.  The  real 
objection  here  is  found  in  the  fact  that  this  material  consti- 
tuted the  sole  intellectual  interests  of  the  time;  this,  however, 
is  an  indictment  against  the  age  rather  than  against  the 
Schoolmen.  The  indictment  that  their  beliefs,  their  proposi- 
tions, their  problems,  were  without  any  foundation,  that  they 
possessed  no  reality,  is  again  one  that  argues  a  limitation 
in  the  critic  as  well  as  in  the  criticised.  The  foundation  of 
these  beliefs  was  primarily  in  authority ;  the  foundation 
which  a  modern  student  seeks  for  his  beliefs  is  in  experience  ; 
but  the  Schoolmen  sought  to  supplement  the  support  of  au- 
thority by  that  of  reason,  just  as  the  modern  student  seeks  to 


Middle  Ages  309 

interpret  experience ;  only,  again,  reason  to  the  Schoolmen 
was  discovered  by  introspective,  deductive  analysis ;  to  the 
modern  largely  by  objective  experimentation  or  by  compara- 
tive induction.  The  valid  objections  to  scholastic  learning  are 
not  so  much  those  pointing  out  its  positive  defects.;  as  those 
revealing  its  negative  limitations. 

MERITS  AND  DEMERITS  OF  SCHOLASTIC  EDUCATION. 

—  The  first  great  limitation  of  the  Schoolmen,  and  the  one 
sufficient  to  call  forth  the  condemnation  of  the  modern  mind, 
was  that  they  never  stopped  to  inquire  concerning  the  validity 
of  the  material  with  which  they  dealt  or  to  ascertain  whether 
they  had  all  the  data  before  attempting  the  conclusion.  A 
second  and  related  limitation  was  that  the  material  they  dealt 
with  was  abstract  and  metaphysical  without  being  supple- 
mented by  any  knowledge  of  the  concrete  and  physical. 
Here  again  the  scholastic  attitude  is  wholly  out  of  sympathy 
with  the  modern.  The  truths  they  reached  possessed  only 
formal  value ;  they  could  affect  primarily  the  thought  life, 
and  only  indirectly  and  remotely  the  conduct  of  the  people, 
and  then  of  but  few.  They  made  no  attempt  to  connect  the 
two  worlds  of  intellectual  interests ;  hence  they  possessed  no 
external  test  or  criterion  to  judge  the  reality,  or  at  least  the 
value,  of  their  principles.  Their  procedure  was  forever  in  a 
circle ;  no  intellectual  progress  was  possible  until  there  came 
to  prevail  the  nominalist  position,  —  that  the  concrete,  the 
individual,  was  reality.  From  scholasticism  general  principles, 
of  formal  value  only,  could  be  derived.  By  some  keen  minds 
of  the  time  this  limitation  was  realized.  John  of  Salisbury 
(c.  1115-1180),  a  keen  student,  a  famous  teacher,  a  pupil  of 
Abelard's  and  of  other  noted  Schoolmen,  a  friend  and  sup- 
porter of  Thomas  a  Becket,  a  Schoolman  who,  almost  alone 
among  the  learned  men  of  his  time,  is  distinguished  by  his 
knowledge  and  love  for  the  classics  and  his  distaste  for  what 
he  felt  to  be  the  futility  of  dialectic,  has  left  in  his  Metalogicus 


History  of  Education 

—  one  of  the  very  few  detailed  accounts  of  the  educational 
methods  and  activities  of  the  times,  —  a  statement  of  the  non- 
progressiveness  of  dialectic  study.  After  a  student  life  at 
Mount  St.  Genevieve  at  Paris,  under  Abelard  and  other  fa 
mous  masters,  and  after  a  study  of  theology  in  other  schools, 
he  returned  to  Paris  and  thus  summed  up  his  impressicns 
of  the  activities  of  his  fellow-students :  — 

"  And  so,  it  seemed  pleasant  to  me  to  revisit  my  old  com- 
panions on  the  Mount,  whom  I  had  left  and  whom  dialectic 
still  detained,  to  confer  with  them  touching  old  matters  of 
debate ;  that  we  might  by  mutual  comparison  measure  to- 
gether our  several  progress.  I  found  them  as  before,  and 
where  they  were  before ;  nor  did  they  appear  to  have  reached 
the  goal  in  unravelling  the  old  questions,  nor  had  they  added 
one  jot  of  a  proposition.  The  aims  that  once  inspired  them, 
inspired  them  still :  they  only  had  progressed  in  one  point, 
they  had  unlearned  moderation,  they  knew  not  modesty  ;  in 
such  wise  that  one  might  despair  of  their  recovery.  And 
thus  experience  taught  me  a  manifest  conclusion,  that,  whereas 
dialectic  furthers  other  studies,  so  if  it  remains  by  itself  it 
lies  bloodless  and  barren,  nor  does  it  quicken  the  soul  to  yield 
fruit  of  philosophy,  except  the  same  be  conceived  from  else- 
where." 

One  further  decided  limitation  of  the  Schoolmen  was  the 
fact  that  much  of  their  discussion  possessed  no  reality  ;  not 
only  no  reality  in  the  concrete  world  of  everyday  life,  but  no 
validity  in  thought  as  well.  Much  of  it  consisted  merely 
of  endless  and  profitless  discussions  about  words  and  terms. 
Accurate  terminology  is  usually  necessary  to  the  progressive 
formulation  of  truth  for  further  discovery  or  investigation; 
but  there  may  be  endless  disputations  about  terms,  "hair- 
splitting "  niceties  of  thought,  that  have  for  their  purpose 
nothing  beyond  the  discussion.  Even  against  the  greatest  of 
the  Schoolmen  such  a  criticism  is  often  valid.  On  the  other 
hand,  much  of  the  modern  contempt  for  the  Schoolmen  in 
this  respect  is  based  upon  a  failure  to  apprehend  their  point 


Middle  Ages  311 

3i  view  and  their  interest.  To  them  all  questions  must  be 
given  a  philosophical  form  and  a  theological  bearing.  Hence 
such  trivial  or  even  sacrilegious  questions  as  those  so  often 
quoted  to  indicate  the  puerility  and  utter  worthlessness  of 
scholastic  learning  are  upon  subjects  yet  considered  of  great- 
est importance  in  the  thought-world  of  our  own  times  and  yet 
productive  of  many  volumes.  "  How  many  angels  can  stand 
on  the  point  of  a  needle  ? "  "  Can  God  make  two  hills  without 
the  intervening  valley?"  "What  happens  when  a  mouse  eats 
the  consecrated  host  ?  "  —  all  such  questions  conceal  beneath 
their  simple  form  the  profound  inquiries  concerning  the  rela- 
tion of  the  finite  to  the  infinite,  the  •  attributes  of  the  infinite, 
the  nature  of  reality.  Give  them  a  form  that  only  the  trained 
metaphysician  can  understand  and  they  constitute  the  pro- 
fundities of  thought;  give  them  the  form  such  that  the 
untrained  adult  or  the  youth  just  beginning  his  course  of 
scholastic  studies  can  comprehend  and  handle,  and  they  form 
the  "monstrosities"  of  the  Schoolmen. 

One  decided  merit  of  scholasticism  was  that  it  stimulated 
intellectual  interests.  In  the  development  of  the  universities 
we  are  to  see  the  immediate  results  of  this.  As  a  stage  in 
educational  evolution,  scholasticism  is  worthy  of  strongest 
emphasis.  The  education  of  the  early  Middle  Ages  gave  little 
or  no  place  to  purely  intellectual  concerns ;  the  entire  ten- 
dency was  to  eliminate  these.  While  scholasticism  represents 
a  type  of  such  interests  that  finds  no  parallel  either  in  preced- 
ing or  succeeding  times,  it  is  also  true  that  there  are  few 
periods  in  history  in  which  interests  of  a  purely  intellectual, 
even  metaphysical,  character  are  prominent. 

This  legitimatizing  of  intellectual  interests  had  a  further 
profound  result :  it  developed  an  intellectual  ability  no  longer 
confined  to  rare  and  infrequent  cases.  The  learned  men  of 
the  early  Middle  Ages  are  few  and  widely  scattered  in  time 
and  place.  From  the  thirteenth  century  men  of  learning 
are  very  numerous.  As  we  have  seen,  the  character  of  their 


History  of  Education 

learning  is  not  very  highly  valued  by  subsequent  ages,  bu- 
no  one  denies  the  acuteness  of  their  minds.  The  subtlety  of 
their  reasoning  is  such  that  the  modern  student,  trained  to 
deal  with  concrete  materials  rather  than  with  abstractions, 
finds  it  very  difficult  to  follow  their  arguments  with  their  fine 
distinctions  and  their  multitude  of  accurately  used  scientific 
or  logical  terms.  Even  their  discussions  about  words  and 
subtleties  of  thought  performed  an  extremely  important 
function  in  the  subsequent  development  of  thought,  because 
it  produced  a  scientific  and  logical  terminology  so  essential  to 
all  accurate  thinking. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  realism,  scholasticism  was  the 
attempt  to  support  authority  by  the  intellect,  to  supplement 
faith  by  reason  ;  it  was  the  union  of  theology  and  logic,  of 
religion  and  metaphysics.  But  from  the  nominalist  point  of 
view,  scholasticism  was  the  conflict  of  reason  with  authority, 
an  attempt  to  overthrow  religious  despotism  by  philosophy, 
the  desire  to  broaden  religious  beliefs  by  intelligence.  Realism 
as  seen  in  the  earlier  scholastic  discussions  concerning  the 
doctrine  of  the  eucharist  was  based  upon  the  deceptiveness 
of  the  senses,  the  insufficiency  of  human  experience  as  a 
source  of  truth  ;  nominalism  was  based  altogether  upon  the 
validity,  the  trustworthiness,  and  the  sufficiency  of  experience. 
Truth  was  to  be  reached  through  the  testimony  of  the  senses : 
only  thus  was  the  validity  of  the  general  notion  to  be  tested. 
To  be  sure,  this  view  was  rather  implicit  than  explicit  in  the 
teachings  of  the  nominalists ;  they  held  it  as  a  formal  truth. 
Only  very  gradually  did  it  work  itself  out ;  only  in  the 
course  of  time  was  it  realized  that  this  position  was  wholly 
destructive  of  the  scholastic  attitude;  only  with  the  close 
of  the  period  was  it  seen  that  even  if  the  nominalist 
position  was  true,  it  possessed  only  the  formal  value  that 
might  also  be  possessed  by  the  realist  position.  Philosophi- 
cally, the  modern  point  of  view  was  to  reject  both ;  the 
approach  of  modern  thought  is  different  from  that  of  scholas 


Middle  Ages  313 

ticism.  But  the  nominalist  influence  as  it  became  stronger 
and  stronger  had  this  important  result:  the  emphasis  upon 
the  importance  of  experience,  not  now  in  the  formal  sense, 
but  in  a  more  material  sense,  as  the  source  of  truth  is  pecul- 
iarly characteristic  of  the  development  of  the  Renaissance 
thought  as  formulated  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies. Nominalism  gradually  worked  toward  this  concep- 
tion ;  and,  with  its  triumph  in  the  fourteenth  century,  the 
scholastic  period  shortly  came  to  an  end  and  a  new  educa- 
tional, philosophical,  and  intellectual  period  began. 

§  6.    THE    UNIVERSITIES 

ORIGIN  OF  UNIVERSITIES.  — Under  the  stimulus  of  the 
interest  in  dialectic,  a  number  of  schools  connected  with 
the  cathedrals  and  monasteries  sprang  into  prominence  in  the 
later  eleventh  and  early  twelfth  century.  The  most  impor- 
tant of  these  was  that  at  Paris  under  William  of  Champeaux 
(d.  1121).  The  success  of  Abelard  in  causing  William  to 
modify  his  dialectic  statements,  the  fact  that  Abelard  took  a 
position  decidedly  hostile  to  the  dominant  realism,  and  the 
resulting  fact  that  unorthodox  dialectic  views  thus  found  room 
for  expression  and  a  more  genuine  discussion  concerning 
views  was  thus  stimulated,  soon  made  Paris  the  center  of 
these  intellectual  interests.  The  statement  that  Abelard  drew 
thirty  thousand  students  around  him  at  Paris  is  probably 
an  exaggeration,  though  the  other  statement  that  from  his 
students  came  twenty  cardinals  and  fifty  bishops  receives 
greater  support.  Undoubtedly  great  numbers  of  students 
were  so  drawn  and  demanded  a  multitude  of  minor  teachers 
*x>  prepare  them  for  the  more  profound  discussions  of  the 
master.  Thus  the  essential  elements  of  the  early  univer- 
sity —  the  students  and  the  teachers  —  were  found  at  Paris 
before  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century.  With  the  eleventh 
century  Western  Europe,  especially  the  Church,  began  to 


314  History  of  Education 

throw  off  the  incubus  to  enterprise  and  the  obstacle  to  greater 
intellectual  freedom  that  existed  in  the  belief  that  the  millen^ 
nium  was  at  hand.  The  fact  that  during  the  tenth  and  the 
eleventh  centuries  the  Northmen,  the  last  of  the  migratory 
Teutons,  accepted  a  settled  life  and  gave  to  France  and  Eng- 
land a  period  of  comparative  peace,  rendered  a  development 
of  the  interests  of  a  stable  civilization  possible.  Though  as 
yet  they  showed  little  appreciation  for  the  cultural  aspects  of 
life,  these  same  Normans,  in  fact  the  Teutons  in  general, 
were  endowed  with  virile  minds.  Hence  they  were  drawn  to 
dialectic  discussion,  as  they  could  not  have  been  to  a  mere 
literary  study  of  appreciation  ;  and  more  and  more  as  other 
lines  of  activity  were  reduced  to  the  orderliness  of  a  complex 
society,  they  turned  their  genius  into  intellectual  lines.  This 
new  Teutonic  blood  affected  Italy  as  well  as  England,  France, 
and  Germany.  The  papacy  and  the  Church  in  general  had 
recovered  from  a  period  of  greatest  degradation,  and  through 
the  struggle  with  the  Holy  Roman  emperors  both  had  acquired 
new  strength  and  new  interests.  This  affected  intellectual 
pursuits  and  stimulated  to  the  study  of  dialectic,  theology, 
and  canon  law.  The  development  of  commercial  enterprise 
and  municipal  government,  especially  in  the  Italian  cities, 
stimulated  secular  interests  and  secular  learning  to  a  point 
such  as  they  had  never  reached  before.  Meanwhile  the 
Crusade  movement  had  begun.  The  isolation  of  European 
society  —  which  really  under  early  feudalism  had  not  been  a 
society  but  a  series  of  isolated  groups  —  was  broken  down. 
The  communication  of  ideas  was  stimulated  and  the  intel- 
lectual horizon  broadened  immensely.  The  "  barbarians  "  of 
the  East  were  discovered,  with  reason,  to  consider  in  turn  the 
people  of  the  West  as  "  barbarians."  The  attitude  of  inquiry 
and  of  doubt,  of  freedom  of  opinion,  which  belonged  to  the 
East  began  to  affect  the  West.  This  contact  with  the  East  and 
with  Saracen  learning  brought  to  Europe,  not  only  a  knowl- 
edge of  Arabic  culture  and  science  (first  looked  UDOD  as  blach 


Middle  Ages  315 

art,  later  to  be  embraced  as  science),  but  it  also  furnished  in 
the  thirteenth  century  a  completer  knowledge  of  Aristotle 
and  of  Greek  philosophy.  These  influences  combined  in 
varying  proportions  :  no  two  universities  were  founded  by 
the  concurrence  of  exactly  the  same  circumstances.  Each 
had  some  causes  peculiar  to  itself,  and  all  the  earliest  ones 
were,  in  reality,  special  schools  where  one  or  two  special 
studies  were  pursued.  Only  later  did  they  offer  in  their 
curricula  the  entire  range  of  higher  studies. 

The  immediate  cause  of  the  origin  of  universities  in  Italy  was 
not  the  same  as  that  in  France  and  England.  In  these  latter 
countries  they  were  the  outgrowth  of  theological  and  dialectic 
interests,  both  growing  out  of  the  Church.  In  Southern  Italy, 
where  the  contact  with  the  Saracens,  with  the  Normans,  and 
with  the  old  population  of  Greek  origin  was  intimate,  and 
where  a  more  direct  acquaintance  with  Greek  literature  was 
preserved,  there  had  grown  up,  in  connection  with  the  mon- 
astery at  Salerno,  an  interest  in  the  study  and  practice  of 
medicine.  The  work  and  teachings  of  the  monks  along  these 
lines  were  stimulated  by  the  first  Crusade  and  the  fame  of  this 
school  spread  abroad  by  the  returning  knights.  Under  the 
shadow  of  the  monastic  influence  there  grew  up  a  school 
for  the  teaching  of  medicine,  which  in  a  way  became  the  first 
university.  Salerno  itself  was  never  organized  into  a  char- 
tered university,  though  this  distinctive  teaching  work  of  a 
secular  character  was  well  established  shortly  after  the  middle 
of  the  eleventh  century.  Later  the  school  was  united  to  that 
of  the  neighboring  city  of  Naples  which  was  chartered  by 
Frederick  II  as  the  University  in  1224.  In  the  northern 
Italian  cities,  struggling  as  they  were  with  the  German 
emperor  for  their  rights,  a  new  and  vital  interest  grew  up  in 
Roman  law,  a  knowledge  of  which  had  been  allowed  to  fall 
into  desuetude.  The  emperor  based  most  of  his  claims  to 
authority  upon  the  rights  of  the  old  Roman  emperors;  the 
cities  sought  to  check  these  claims  by  a  knowledge  of  charters, 


History  of  Education 

Df  edicts,  and  of  legal  limitations  that  had  long  been  forgot- 
ten. The  knowledge  of  Roman  law  had  probably  never  been 
allowed  to  die  out  entirely,  though  it  was  long  thought  that 
the  growth  of  this  study  dated  from  an  alleged  discovery  of  a 
copy  of  the  Pandects  of  Justinian  made  in  1135  at  the  sack 
of  Amalfi.  However  that  may  be,  there  grew  up  in  several 
of  these  cities  schools  for  the  study  of  law.  That  at  Bologna 
was  made  famous  by  the  greatest  of  these  early  teachers, 
Irnerius  (IO6/-C.  1138),  in  the  same  manner  that  Abelard 
raised  Paris  to  distinction,  and  large  numbers  of  students 
collected  here.  Thus  Bologna  became  a  center  for  study,  and 
as  these  students  and  teachers  were  given  privileges,  it  be- 
came the  first  organized  university. 

THE    FOUNDING    OF     THE    UNIVERSITIES.  —  These 

definite  privileges,  given  in  the  form  of  a  written  document 
from  emperor  or  pope,  thus  became  the  charter  or  charters 
of  the  institution.  It  was  only  much  later  that  an  institution 
was  organized  outright  by  conferring  on  it  all  desired  privi- 
leges. At  Bologna  the  first  charter  was  given  by  Emperor 
Frederick  I,  in  1158.  Paris  received  its  first  recognition  from 
Louis  VII  in  1 180  and  was  recognized  by  the  pope  at  about 
the  same  time.  Its  full  recognition  came  in  1200.  At  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  the  date  of  the  formal  recognition  by  charter 
is  yet  more  difficult  to  determine,  but  was  somewhat  later. 
In  all  these  cases  the  large  groups  of  students  and  teachers 
had  existed  for  some  time  previous  to  charter  organization, 
and  schools  had  existed  under  monastic  or  Church  control  in 
all  these  centers  for  an  indefinite  period.  Chartered  institu- 
tions, that  is  those  possessing  special  privileges,  quickly 
came  to  exert  peculiar  influence  and  were  rapidly  multiplied. 
During  the  thirteenth  century  nineteen  of  these  institutions 
were  created  by  popes  and  monarchs;  during  the  fourteenth, 
twenty-five  more  were  added  ;  and  during  the  fifteenth,  thirty 
more.  By  the  period  of  the  classical  Renaissance  there 


Middle  Ages  317 

existed   some   seventy-five   or   eighty   of    these    institutions 
scattered  over  all  the  countries  of  Europe. 

STRUCTURE  AND  ORGANIZATION  OF  UNIVERSITIES. 

—  No  individual  during  the  Middle  Ages  was  secure  in  his 
rights,  even  of  life  or  property,  certainly  not  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  ordinary  freedom,  unless  protected  by  specific 
guarantees  secured  from  some  organization.  Politically,  one 
must  owe  allegiance  to  some  feudal  lord  from  whom  pro- 
tection was  received ;  economically,  one  must  secure  his 
rights  through  merchant  or  craft  guild;  intellectual  interests 
and  educational  activities  were  secured  and  controlled  by  the 
Church.  In  the  cases  mentioned,  groups  of  students  are  col- 
lected in  centers  made  famous  by  earlier  cathedral  or  mo- 
nastic schools,  but  are  now  no  longer  governed  by  the  narrow 
interests  of  the  monastic  or  clerical  aspirant  and  no  longer 
controlled  by  the  rigid  rules  of  these  institutions.  It  became 
necessary  that  these  groups  should  organize  in  order  to  regu- 
late their  own  conduct,  to  protect  themselves  from  extortion 
_b_y  citizens  of  the  community,  to  secure  themselves  legal  rights, 
and  to  maintain  their  interests  in  the  face  of  Church  author- 
ities. By  the  conferment  upon  them  of  these  special  rights, 
such  groups  of  students,  or  of  students  and  teachers,  were 
recognized  as  distinct  bodies. 

The  unorganized  group  of  students  and  teachers  was  called 
a  stitdium  generate,  a  name  indicating  either  that  a  generality 
of  studies  was  here  pursued,  or  that  the  students  were  drawn 
from  the  widest  territorial  limits.  Since  none  of  these  new 
centers  of  learning,  in  the  early  period,  taught  all  the  uni- 
versity subjects,  the  wide  origin  of  the  student  clientele  is  prob 
ably  the  primary  characteristic  indicated.  Other  features  oi 
the  universities  that  distinguished  them  from  previous  schools 
were  their  government,  democratic  in  its  nature ;  their  loca- 
tion in  centers  of  population  rather  than  in  remote  spots,  such 
as  those  sought  by  the  monasteries ;  their  special  privileges, 


318  History  of  Education 

legal  and  pecuniary  ;  and  the  fact  that  these  privileges  had  to 
be  conferred  by  general  authority,  and  hence  that  universities 
were  founded  by  pope  or  emperor  or  later  by  kings,  but 
could  never  be  founded  by  local  patrons  as  were  monastic  or 
other  ecclesiastical  schools. 

Privileges  of  Universities.  —  These  special  privileges  con- 
ferred by  pope  and  emperor  upon  students  and  masters  were 
the  specific  instruments  through  which  the  university  pro- 
tected itself  and  built  itself  up.  In  general,  these  charters 
conferred  upon  all  masters,  students,  and  even  their  atten- 
dants the  privileges  of  clerks  or  of  the  clergy.  Thus  the 
privileges  originally  belonging  to  the  teaching  class  and  ex- 
tended by  the  Roman  emperors  to  the  clergy  of  the  Christian 
Church,  in  turn,  were  again  extended  to  the  teaching  class, 
and  developed  a  new  professional  interest  and  a  new  class 
in  society.  Such  privileges  exempted  students  from  official 
service,  from  military  service,  except  under  specific  limita- 
tions (e.g.  at  Paris  only  when  the  enemy  were  within  five 
leagues  of  the  city  wall);  from  taxation,  especially  the  petty 
local  exactions,  from  contributions,  etc.  One  of  the  greatest 
of  these  privileges  was  that  of  internal  jurisdiction.  Just 
as  the  clergy  had  been  permitted  to  absorb  in  their  privileges 
the  right  of  trying  their  own  members  practically  in  all  civil 
and  many  criminal  cases,  so  in  turn  the  universities  developed 
much  the  same  power  over  their  own  members  and  their  adher- 
ents. This  custom  first  grew  up  in  Bologna  under  the  favor 
of  the  emperor,  where,  since  civil  law  was  the  chief  study, 
students  and  masters  were  particularly  competent  to  exercise 
this  right.  The  civil  or  at  least  police  jurisdiction  which  the 
German  university  yet  exercises  over  its  student  members, 
and  the  special  favor  of  a  privileged  standard  of  conduct 
which  the  American  college  student  claims,  are  survivals 
of  this  once  extended  right. 

The  other  important  privilege  is  that  of  granting  the  degree, 
which  was  merely  the  license  to  teach.  Previous  to  this  time 


Middle  Ages  319 

this  important  privilege  had  been  granted  only  by  the  Church 
through  the  archbishop,  the  bishop,  or  one  of  their  subordinate 
officers ;  and  thus  the  Church  had  controlled  the  method  and 
the  content  of  teaching.  Ordinarily,  under  authority  con- 
ferred by  the  pope,  the  university  diploma  granted  the  privi- 
lege of  teaching  in  any  institution  wherever  the  authority  of 
the  university  —  that  is,  of  the  pope  delegated  by  his  charter 
—  extended.  This  practically  meant  entire  Christendom ; 
and  though  nominally  sanctioned  by  the  pope,  the  authority 
was  exercised  by  the  university  direct,  and  thus  one  important 
monopoly  of  the  Church  over  learning  was  destroyed.  These 
privileges  possessed  a  sanction  in  the  "right,"  not  granted  by 
charter  but  developed  by  usage,  known  as  cessatio,  the  right 
of  "striking"  or  of  moving  the  university,  consisting  as  it  did 
of  students  and  teachers  only,  if  its  privileges  were  infringed. 
Thus  the  importance  of  Oxford  dates  from  a  migration 
from  Paris  in  1229;  the  importance  of  Cambridge  from  a 
similar  disturbance  at  Oxford  in  1 209. 

Many  petty  privileges  were  developed  peculiar  to  each  uni- 
versity. These,  such  as  the  right  to  demand  bread  or  wine 
from  dealers  on  certain  feast  days,  though  all  such  are  merely 
incidental,  were  held  on  to  quite  as  tenaciously  as  these  more 
important  ones. 

The  Nations  and  the  University.  —  These  privileges  had  to 
be  conferred  upon  definite  bodies  of  people,  and  hence  a  more 
definite  organization  than  the  studium generate  was  necessary. 
The  most  natural  division  of  these  heterogeneous  masses  of 
students,  drawn  from  all  over  Europe  at  a  time  when  terri- 
torial lines  were  very  indefinite  and  national  distinctions  were 
more  those  of  a  genetic  than  of  a  territorial  and  political 
character,  was  that  of  language  and  kinship.  Hence  students 
and  masters  organized  into  groups  according  to  their  national 
affiliations.  And  upon  these  nations  singly,  or  more  often 
in  group  organization,  charters  containing  privileges  were 
granted.  Such  a  body  was  called  universitas  magistrorum 


. 

320  History  of  Education 

et  scholarium.  The  term  universitas  means  primarily  "  all 
of  us  "  or  "  some  of  us,"  and  had  the  general  significance 
of  our  word  corporation  or  association  or  company.  In 
time,  but  not  until  the  fourteenth  century,  the  one  word  came 
to  be  used  instead  of  the  previous  more  general  term. 

At  Paris  there  were  four  nations,  the  French,  the  Normans, 
the  Picards,  and  the  English  (after  the  Hundred  Years' 
War  began  the  latter  was  changed  to  German).  In  Bologna 
there  were  at  first  four  universities  ;  then  two,  the  Cisalpine, 
consisting  of  seventeen  nations,  and  the  Transalpine,  con- 
sisting of  eighteen  nations.  Finally,  all  were  amalgamated 
into  one  organization. 

A  most  peculiar  characteristic  of  the  Southern  universities 
was  the  fact  that  the  nations,  and  hence  the  governing  bodies, 
were  there  wholly  controlled  by  the  students.  Thus  the 
students  in  the  nations  determined  when  lectures  should  begin, 
how  long  they  should  continue,  whether  the  charges  were 
legitimate,  etc.  In  the  North,  where  the  students  were  for  the 
most  part  those  of  the  arts  instead  of  those  of  law  and  were 
consequently  much  less  mature,  the  masters  themselves  con- 
stituted the  controlling  force  in  the  nations. 

The  Faculties.  —  The  organization  of  the  nations  had  to  do 
with  conduct,  civil  right,  and  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction.  It  had 
little  direct  reference  to  the  studies.  In  time,  however,  it  be- 
came necessary  to  regulate  studies  and  methods,  —  in  fact, 
scholastic  procedure  in  general.  The  faculties  were  a  some- 
what later  development  than  the  nations.  In  Paris  they  took 
shape  in  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  term 
itself,  quite  as  indefinite  as  the  term  university,  simply  meant 
knowledge  or  science  ;  but  in  time  it  was  applied  to  a  depart- 
ment of  study,  as  faculty  of  law,  theology,  arts,  etc.,  and  finally 
to  the  body  of  men,  previously  termed  consortum  magistrorum, 
that  had  control  of  a  particular  department  of  study.  This 
body,  as  it  developed,  obtained  control  of  the  granting  of 
degrees  and  was  originally  composed  of  all  who  had  taken 
their  degree. 


Middle  Ages  321 

Governing  Body  and  Other  Officials.  —  The  nations  elected, 
usually  annually,  a  procurator  or  councilor;  each  faculty  a 
dean ;  and  these  representatives  together  a  rector  of  the 
university.  This  official  head  of  the  university  possessed 
only  delegated  power,  was  usually  elected  annually,  and  in 
the  South,  at  least,  was  usually  a  student.  The  real  governing 
power  of  the  university  lay  in  the  nations.  By  the  sixteenth 
century  these  head  officials  had  become  for  the  most  part 
political  appointees,  and  the  nations  had  long  since  lost  all 
material  authority.  In  the  earlier  centuries  the  Church 
continued  to  be  represented  directly  by  the  chancellor,  who 
nominally  represented  the  archbishop  in  the  conferring  of  the 
license  to  teach.  This  right  soon  became  restricted  to  the 
ceremonial  of  the  public  conferment  of  the  degree. 

DEGREES.  —  The  nature  of  the  degree  and  of  the  entire 
work  of  the  university  can  best  be  understood  by  a  compari- 
son with  some  simpler  aspects  of  mediaeval  life  which  the 
student  life  paralleled.  Such,  for  example,  is  the  chivalric 
education,  with  its  seven  years  of  training  as  a  page  and 
seven  years  as  a  squire  preceding  the  acquirement  of  full 
knighthood.  A  similar  parallel  can  be  found  in  the  making 
of  a  master  in  any  craft  or  mercantile  pursuit,  where  the  youth 
had  first  to  serve  seven  years  as  an  apprentice ;  then  a  more 
or  less  indefinite  period  as  a  journeyman,  —  a  further  period 
under  a  master  while  yet  working  for  an  independent  wage, — 
all  before  he  finally  became  a  master  possessing  full  rights  in 
the  guild.  In  quite  a  similar  way  the  youth  of  thirteen  or 
fourteen  who  wished  to  study  the  liberal  arts,  or  to  prepare 
himself  for  teaching,  appeared  at  the  university  where  he  had 
to  enroll  himself  with  a  master  who  was  thereafter  (for  the 
first  period  at  least)  responsible  for  him.  Here  he  served  an 
apprenticeship  of  from  three  to  seven  years,  until  he  learned 
to  read  the  ordinary  texts  in  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  logic, 
to  define  the  words  and  determine  the  meaning  of  phrases, 


History  of  Education 

the  use  of  terms  and  classifications.  When  now  he  could 
define  and  determine  and  could  demonstrate  this  to  the 
satisfaction  of  masters  other  than  his  own,  he  was  accepted, 
as  it  were,  as  a  journeyman  workman ;  he  continued  his 
studies  under  some  master,  no  longer  being  rigidly  held  to 
the  one  as  hitherto,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  instruction  to 
the  younger  boys  under  the  direction  of  a  master.  After  a 
further  period  of  study,  varying  with  time  and  place,  in  which 
he  demonstrated  his  ability  to  carry  on  a  logical  disputation, 
and  familiarized  himself  with  the  required  texts,  or  the 
course  of  study,  he  was  permitted  to  demonstrate  this  ability, 
as  a  journeyman  workman  does  by  making  a  "  masterpiece," 
by  defending  in  public  a  thesis  against  the  masters  of  the  art, 
that  is,  the  members  of  the  faculty  or  those  who  already  pos- 
sessed the  degree.  This  having  been  done  successfully,  he  was 
given  the  degree,  the  licentiate,  the  mastership,  the  doctorate 
—  whatever  it  might  be  called.  Master,  doctor,  professor, 
were  synonymous  terms  in  the  early  university  period.  These 
degrees  were  all  one  and  the  same ;  they  signified  that  he  was 
able  to  dispute  as  well  as  to  define  and  determine,  and  author- 
ized him  to  teach  publicly,  that  is,  to  determine  and  dispute  ; 
thus  he  was  admitted  into  the  guild  of  masters  or  teachers,  in 
other  words,  into  the  faculty.  He  was  now  on  a  parity  with 
other  members  of  the  faculty,  and  could  teach  in  the  free  com- 
petition into  which  they  all  entered,  providing  he  could  obtain 
students. 

The  preliminary  degree,  the  baccalaureate,  —  a  term  which 
signified  a  beginner,  an  inferior,  an  apprentice  in  any  field, 
and  was  used  in  the  Church,  in  chivalry,  in  the  guilds,  and  in 
the  country  feudal  organization,  as  well  as  in  the  university, 
-  was  simply  formal  admission  into  candidacy  for  the  license 
and  was  not  originally  a  degree  in  itself.  During  the  fifteenth 
century  it  became  a  distinct  stage  in  the  educational  process 
and  hence  quite  well  defined  as  a  minor  degree.  The  master- 
ship and  doctorate,  so  far  as  there  was  any  distinction  between 


Middle  Ages  323 

them,  also  indicated  merely  two  aspects  of  the  final  confer 
ment  of  the  privilege,  —  one  was  the  more  private  profes- 
sional test,  the  other  the  public  ceremonial.  The  one  term 
came  to  be  preferred  in  England,  the  other  on  the  Continent. 
That  there  should  be  three  successive  degrees,  as  in  an 
American  institution,  is  an  anomaly  or  at  least  a  result  of 
slow  historical  growth,  not  to  be  found  in  the  mediaeval 
institution. 

THE  METHODS  AND  CONTENT  OF  UNIVERSITY 
STUDIES  have  been  previously  discussed  under  scholasticism. 
After  the  opening  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  course  of 
study  was  determined  by  papal  bull  or  university  statute  and 
was  far  more  restricted  than  was  the  intellectual  activity  of 
the  twelfth  century.  While  it  is  true  that  the  thirteenth 
century  possessed  far  more  of  Aristotle  than  did  the  twelfth, 
this  but  resulted  in  making  the  work  more  formal  and  re- 
stricted. Peter  the  Lombard  was  a  pupil  of  Abelard  and 
held  much  the  same  theological  views;  but  the  spirit  of 
Abelard  was  that  of  free  inquiry,  of  investigation,  of  rational- 
ism, while  that  of  Peter  was  one  of  rigid  scholastic  orthodoxy. 
Abelard  was  condemned  as  a  heretic ;  Peter  became  the 
master  authority  of  the  university  for  two  centuries.  The 
influence  of  the  one  was  dangerous  to  the  supremacy  of  non- 
rational  ecclesiasticism ;  the  influence  of  the  other  rendered 
it  triumphant. 

A  brief  statement  of  definite  details  will  make  more  vivid 
our  conception  of  the  work  of  the  early  universities.  In  the 
school  of  arts  were  used  the  grammatical  works  of  Priscian, 
a  work  on  grammatical  figures  by  Donatus,  the  logical  works 
of  Aristotle  given  through  Boethius  and  Porphyry  ;  the  Cate- 
gories and  the  de  Interpretation  of  Aristotle,  and  the  Isagoge 
of  Porphyry,  from  which  originated  the  realistic-nominalistic 
controversy,  were  known  in  the  translations  of  Boethius ;  the 
remainder  of  the  Organon  was  known  only  through  sum 


^24  History  of  Education 

maries  or  other  writings  of  Boethius.  To  these  latter  the 
greatest  amount  of  time  was  given,  and  even  much  of  the 
time  aside  from  the  long  hours  in  the  lecture  room  was  spent 
in  participating  in  or  listening  to  the  endless  disputations. 
At  Paris  the  statutes  of  1215  introduced  the  Ethics  of  Aris- 
totle, and  in  1255  his  Physics,  Metaphysics ',  and  his  treatise 
On  the  Soul.  These  works  of  Aristotle,  previously  inter- 
dicted at  Paris,  had  been  introduced  somewhat  earlier  in 
other  universities.  Elsewhere  some  other  introductory  works 
on  logic  might  be  read,  but  everywhere  the  study  of  logic 
consumed  the  greater  part  of  the  time.  Up  to  the  middle  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  Aristotle  controlled  the  work  of  the 
universities.  The  study  of  logic  replaced  all  others,  and 
rhetoric  was  given  no  attention  whatever.  The  study  of 
geometry  and  astronomy  had  made  some  progress,  especially 
in  the  Italian  universities  and  in  the  University  of  Vienna. 
The  work  of  the  professional  faculties  consisted,  likewise,  in 
the  study  of  a  few  fundamental  texts  together  with  their  in- 
numerable commentaries. 

The  education  of  the  early  universities  was  wholly  one  of 
books,  of  a  very  limited  selection  of  books  in  each  particular 
field,  but  of  books  that  were  looked  upon  as  furnishing  in 
the  written  word  absolute  and  ultimate  authority.  It  was 
directed  much  more  to  the  mastery  of  form  and  the  develop- 
ment of  power  of  formal  speech,  especially  argumentation, 
than  to  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  the  pursuit  of  truth 
in  the  widest  sense,  or  even  to  familiarizing  the  student  with 
those  literary  sources  of  knowledge  which,  though  lying  within 
his  grasp,  were  outside  the  pale  of  orthodox  ecclesiastical 
approval. 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  EARLY  UNIVERSITIES.  —  The 
.esults  of  scholasticism  may  be  taken  as  the  results  of  the 
universities,  as  was  true  with  content  and  method  of  work. 
There  are  other  influences,  however,  to  be  noted.  The  politi 


Middle  Ages  325 

jal  influence  of  the  universities,  both  direct  and  indirect,  was 
marked.  In  the  first  place  they  furnished  the  first  example 
of  purely  democratic  organization.  While  in  the  monastery 
as  well  as  the  episcopal  college  a  certain  democratic  freedom 
in  the  election  of  abbots  prevailed,  yet  their  government  was 
essentially  an  absolutism.  On  the  contrary,  the  officials  of 
the  early  universities  possessed  only  delegated  powers  and 
were  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  governing  democ- 
racies. Freedom  of  discussion  concerning  political  as  well 
as  ecclesiastical  and  theological  matters  here  found  its  first 
home.  While  for  the  most  part  the  sympathies  of  the  uni- 
versities would  naturally  be  with  the  privileged  classes,  whose 
privileges  they  themselves  had  obtained,  they  often  became 
the  mouthpiece  of  the  common  people  in  opposition  to  king 
or  priestcraft.1 

The  right  of  the  university  to  a  voice  in  the  government, 
to  a  seat  in  the  parliaments  of  France,  England,  Scotland, 
is  a  recognition  of  this  political  authority  and  of  the  fact 
that  the  university  had  become  a  great  "  estate."  The  influ- 
ence of  the  University  of  Paris  was  unique,  and  as  the  parent 
and  representative  of  all  northern  universities  it  came  to 
represent  the  French  nationality,  as  the  Holy  Roman  Empire 
did  the  German  and  as  the  papacy  did  the  Italian.  It  acquired 
almost  as  much  influence  in  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and 
fifteenth  centuries,  as  did  these  other  great  institutions. 

Questions  of  State  and  of  controversy  between  State  and 
Church,  such  as  the  divorces  of  Henry  VIII  of  England  and 
Philip  of  France,  were  submitted  to  the  arbitration  of  the 
universities.  The  university  often  became  the  mouthpiece 
of  the  nation  in  voicing  an  opposition  to  the  papacy ;  and  in 
one  instance  the  king  of  France  and  the  university  com- 
pelled one  pope  publicly  to  recant  his  views  and  apologize, 
and  in  another  secured  the  deposition  of  the  head  of  the 
Church. 

1  See  Rashdall,  Vol.  I,  pp.  518-525. 


326  History  of  Education 

Largely  through  the  influence  of  the  University  of  Paris 
the  great  schism  in  the  papacy  and  the  "  Babylonian  Cap- 
tivity "  were  ended.  Though  most  of  their  famous  teachers 
of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  were  friars,  the 
universities  in  general  became  representatives  of  the  secular 
as  opposed  to  the  regular  clergy  and  hence  champions  of  the 
rights  and  interests  of  the  people  and  the  national  clergy,  as 
opposed  to  the  encroachments  of  the  papacy. 

In  a  similar  way  the  university  became  an  authority  in  the 
settlement  of  disputed  doctrinal  points,  and  in  the  determina- 
tion of  questions  of  heresy.  In  holding  this  balance  of  power 
it  tempered  the  extreme  views  of  the  papacy  and  especially 
of  the  papal  representatives, —  the  friar  bodies,  —  and  thus 
mitigated,  if  it  did  not  entirely  eliminate,  the  operations  of 
the  inquisition  in  the  north  of  Europe. 

Politically,  ecclesiastically,  and  theologically,  the  universities 
were  the  bulwark  of  freedom  during  these  centuries  from  the 
dark  ages  to  the  Reformation.  The  constant  complaint  that 
they  wished  to  meddle  in  every  question  is  a  testimony  to 
their  restraining  influence  on  the  arbitrariness  of  king  and 
prelate.  In  them  alone  some  freedom  of  expression  of  opin- 
ion was  preserved.  The  one  class  whose  opposing  views 
monarchs  were  bound  to  respect  was  the  university  students ; 
even  in  the  case  of  representatives  from  foreign  and  hostile 
people,  such  as  often  formed  a  part  of  the  nations  of  a  uni- 
versity, but  rare  instances  of  the  violation  of  the  privileges  of 
students  occurred. 

But  in  regard  to  the  intellectual  life,  restricted,  formal,  and 
meager  as  it  was,  its  greatest  influence  was  exerted.  Intel- 
lectual interests  were  now  crystallized  into  a  great  institution, 
recognized  as  almost  on  a  parity  with  Church,  State,  and 
nobility.  While  this  interest  and  its  resulting  institutional 
organization  were  so  reduced  by  the  fourteenth  or  at  least  by 
the  fifteenth  century  as  to  possess  little  but  formal  life,  the 
university  yet  provided  a  retreat  for  the  rare  genius  who  kept 


Middle  Ages  327 

alive  the  spark  of  real  intellectual  life  and  maintained  a  home 
for  the  new  intellectual  spirit  when  it  did  come.  Howevei 
hostile  it  may  have  been  during  these  centuries  to  innovation, 
to  radicalism,  and  to  rationalism,  yet  in  preserving  the  spirit 
of  speculation,  the  university  kept  alive  the  spirit  of  inquiry. 
And  out  of  it  came  such  men  as  Roger  Bacon,  Dante, 
Petrarch,  Wycliffe,  Huss,  Copernic"s, — the  men  who  brought 
the  modern  spirit. 

§  7.  EDUCATION  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

THE  RENAISSANCE  OF  THE  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY. 

—  It  will  be  seen  from  the  discussion  of  the  last  two  sections 
that  the  later  Middle  Ages  were  far  from  being  "  dark  ages," 
and  that  the  intellectual  interests  and  educational  activities  of 
these  centuries  were  very  great.  The  later  fifteenth  century 
is  usually  taken  as  the  transition  period  from  mediaeval  to 
modern  times ;  but  the  idea  which  this  section  seeks  to  em- 
phasize is  that  this  transition  educationally  was  for  the  most 
part  in  respect  to  spirit  and  content  of  the  intellectual  life. 
In  these  intervening  centuries,  the  thirteenth  to  the  fifteenth 
inclusive,  there  existed  a  place  in  social  organization  for  an 
intellectual  life,  exerting  profound  influence,  permitting  much 
freedom,  having  definite  character,  possessing  peculiar  merits, 
and  developing  an  appropriate  educational  system. 

Moreover,  with  the  thirteenth  century,  the  intellectual 
interests  and  control  passed  from  the  monasteries  to  the 
schools ;  from  under  wholly  ecclesiastical  influences  to  one 
that  while  nominally  ecclesiastical  was  in  spirit  chiefly  secular. 
The  leadership  passed  from  Churchmen  to  doctors,  who  were 
preeminently  logicians,  and  hence  inclined  to  rationalism. 
Intellectual  interests  which  began  by  being  wholly  religious 
or  theological  in  character  ended  by  being  almost  wholly 
philosophical  and  logical.  It  is  true,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
the  dominant  conception  of  education  remained  the  disci- 


328  History  of  Education 

plinary  one ;  that  the  function  of  schooling  was  to  develop 
this  peculiar  intellectual  power  of  logical  character  that  would 
give  one  the  ability  to  state,  to  interpret,  to  define,  to  argue, 
concerning  abstract  conceptions ;  and  that  in  respect  to  its 
outcome,  however  deep  or  intense  its  influence  might  be,  it 
was  peculiarly  narrow.  Yet  on  the  other  hand  intellectual 
interests  received  general  recognition ;  schools  of  all  grades 
became  abundant ;  the  science  of  the  ancients  within  this 
limited  field  became  well  known ;  and  the  educational  world 
but  awaited  the  development  of  the  new  spirit,  which  came 
with  the  fifteenth  and  the  sixteenth  century,  to  become  modern. 

Even  in  our  judgment  of  the  education  and  the  intellectual 
life  of  this  period,  we  are  apt  to  do  it  injustice  because  of  its 
difference  in  spirit  from  our  own;  just  as  during  the  interven- 
ing centuries  there  has  been  a  very  general  tendency  to  deny 
any  merit  whatever  to  the  intellectual  interests  and  ability  of 
the  entire  period,  and  to  hold  that  educationally  it  was  to  be 
judged  and  condemned  along  with  the  preceding  "  dark  ages." 
Nevertheless,  the  education  and  the  intellectual  life  of  these 
three  centuries  possessed  some  merits  as  characteristic  as  the 
peculiar  features  of  the  age  out  of  which  these  merits  grow. 

The  chief  of  all  these  merits,  though  it  carried  with  it  cer- 
tain demerits  as  well,  was  its  unity.  There  was  an  internal 
unity  possessed  by  the  intellectual  life  itself ;  there  was  an 
external  unity  of  the  intellectual  life  in  connection  with  the 
religious,  the  ecclesiastical,  the  artistic,  the  political,  the  eco- 
nomical, the  social  aspects  of  life.  This  unity  was  found  in 
the  dominant  religious  thought.  The  thirteenth  century  pos- 
sessed a  unity  of  life  and  of  ideas  beyond  any  other  century 
in  history.1  It  was  the  last  century  in  which  this  peculiar 
unified  life  of  the  Middle  Ages  dominated.  Realism  —  a 
monistic  idealism  —  was  not  only  the  philosophy  of  the  reli- 
gion, it  was  the  philosophy  of  the  life  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

1  See  Frederic  Harrison,  The  Meaning  of  History^  Ch.  V,  A  survey  of  tin 
thirteenth  century. 


Middle  Ages  329 

As  the  Gothic  cathedrals,  another  great  product  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  were  expressions  not  merely  of  architectural 
art,  but  of  the  arts  of  painting,  sculptoring,  glass  staining, 
wood  carving,  mosaic  designing,  all  unified  in  the  one  domi- 
nant expression  of  religious  sentiment,  so  their  education  was 
harmonized  with  their  religious  life,  their  political  activities, 
their  aesthetic  aspirations,  their  moral  sympathies,  their  mys- 
tical yearnings,  their  theological  discussions,  as  well  as  with 
their  intellectual  development  This  unifying  element  was 
embodied  in  the  dominance  of  the  idea,  —  of  ideals  as  these 
express  some  form  of  authority.  As  the  Church  expressed 
the  absolute  authority  of  the  religious  life,  the  scholastic  the- 
ology the  same  absolutism  in  religious  belief ;  as  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire  expressed  the  same  ideal  politically,  the 
feudal  system  socially,  the  guild  system  economically ;  so 
the  universities  on  the  institutional  side  and  scholasticism  on 
the  intellectual  side  expressed  in  education  the  dominance 
of  the  same  absolutism,  the  same  authority. 

As  long  as  there  is  a  widespread  and  general  attempt  to 
preserve  this  unity  of  life,  —  that  is,  during  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries,  —  the  spirit  of  the  Middle  Ages  persists. 
Nevertheless,  there  are  continual  eruptions  of  individualism 
and  attempts  to  overthrow  this  absolutism,  so  that  in  these 
centuries  the  perfection  and  beauty  of  the  system  as  seen  in 
the  thirteenth  century  no  longer  prevail.  In  the  attempt  to 
suppress  these  expressions  of  individuality,  the  harshness  as 
well  as  the  defects,  the  growing  formalism  and  final  lifeless- 
ness  of  the  earlier  period,  become  apparent.  It  is  not  until 
the  later  fifteenth  century  that  this  effort  to  supplant  the 
dominance  of  authority  by  the  general  sway  of  individual 
judgment,  and  the  development  of  an  educational  system 
that  possesses  no  such  unity,  take  place  in  what  is  known, 
par  excellence,  as  the  Renaissance.  Critical  and  destructive 
tendencies  then  come  to  dominate  as  do  the  unifying  tenden 
cies  during  the  thirteenth. 


History  of  Education 

Meanwhile  there  are  a  few  aspects  of  education  during 
these  last  mediaeval  centuries,  besides  the  universities,  that 
demand  brief  notice. 

THE  FRIARS  OR  THE  MENDICANT  ORDERS  came 
into  general  control  of  higher  education  by  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  The  Franciscans,  or  Gray  Friars,  were 
founded  in  1212  and  the  Dominican,  or  Black  Friars,  in  1216. 
While  the  primary  motive  in  the  mendicant  foundations 
was  ascetic,  they,  especially  the  Dominicans,  soon  devoted 
themselves  with  their  characteristic  energy  to  philosophical 
study  and  to  the  control  of  educational  institutions.  The  aim 
of  the  mendicants,  differing  from  that  of  the  earlier  orders, 
was  to  save  souls,  to  control  people,  to  build  up  the  Church  ; 
and  to  do  this  they  sought  directly  to  control  education.  The 
great  Schoolmen  were  mendicants.  Alexander  of  Hales, 
Bonaventura,  Duns  Scotus,  Roger  Bacon,  were  Franciscans ; 
Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas  were  Dominicans. 
The  prolonged  antagonism  between  the  Thomists  and  Scot- 
ists  was  but  one  aspect  of  the  rivalry  between  these  two 
orders.  The  fact  that  they  disagreed  concerning  important 
theological  doctrines  and  thus  kept  alive  discussions  and,  to 
a.  certain  extent,  the  right  of  private  judgment,  was  of  great 
significance  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  times ;  the  fact  that 
each  was  at  some  time  convicted  of  holding  heretical  doctrines 
somewhat  mitigated  the  gravity  of  the  offense  for  others  not 
so  powerfully  connected,  and  postponed  the  day  of  absolute 
control  of  opinions. 

The  Dominicans,  or  preaching  friars,  especially  sought  to 
control  leaders  of  thought  and  of  the  Church,  and  hence  to 
establish  themselves  at  the  universities.  They  soon  had  a 
convent  in  every  university  town.  Aiming  first  to  "  capture  " 
bachelor  or  master,  they  soon  sought  to  control  the  teaching. 
The  dominance  of  Thomas  Aquinas  indicates  a  success  of 
this  ambition  in  regard  to  theology,  at  least.  The  Domini 


Middle  Ages  331 

cans  thus  became  the  guardians  of  orthodoxy;  while  the 
Franciscans,  with  their  work  among  the  poor,  their  demo- 
cratic sympathies  and  tendencies,  were  rather  the  parents  of 
new  doctrines  and  new  practical  tendencies.  The  fact  that 
these  bodies  were  preeminently  preaching  orders,  as  previ- 
ous orders  had  not  been,  called  for  a  higher  degree  of  intelli- 
gence and  for  more  definite  training.  Hence  these  friars 
became  educators,  in  a  double  sense  ;  first,  in  that  they  gave 
a  more  general  education  to  all  their  members  than  any  pre- 
vious monastic  order;  second,  in  that,  as  preachers,  they  were 
teachers  of  the  people  and  preeminently  preachers  of  doctrine. 

INFLUENCE  OF  SARACEN  LEARNING.  —  The  history 
of  the  learning  and  the  educational  activities  of  Mohammedan 
society  would  take  long  to  narrate,  but  we  are  here  interested 
in  only  one  aspect  of  it,  —  its  influence  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  education  in  the  West  during  the  later  Middle  Ages. 
The  study  of  Grecian  philosophy,  on  account  of  its  heretical 
influences,  especially  in  Gnosticism  and  in  the  Neoplatonic 
school,  had  been  suppressed  in  the  Eastern  Church  by  the 
time  of  the  sixth  century  and  found  a  home  among  the 
Syrians  and  especially  the  Nestorian  sect  of  the  Christians 
in  the  region  of  western  Asia.  Here  it  came  in  contact  with 
the  Arabs  and,  after  the  Abbasid  dynasty  (750  A.D.),  was 
fostered  in  the  capitals  of  the  East.  Learned  Nestorians 
were  summoned  to  the  Saracen  courts;  translations  into 
Arabic  from  the  Syriac  or  the  original  Greek  were  made; 
mathematics  and  the  natural  sciences,  more  especially  the 
medical  sciences,  were  fostered.  During  the  tenth  century 
philosophical  interests  were  similarly  developed,  especially 
under  the  leadership  of  Avicenna  (980-1037).  In  other 
words,  at  the  time  when  the  Christian  schools  of  both  Eastern 
and  Western  Europe  were  falling  into  decay,  the  schools  of 
Bagdad,  Basra,  Kufa,  and  other  Saracen  cities  were  growing 
into  splendid  activity  and  great  renown.  The  character  of 


332  History  of  Education 

this  philosophical  development,  founded  as  it  was  upon 
Aristotle,  was  quite  similar  to  the  earlier  movement  in  the 
Christian  Church.  It  sought  to  substitute  for  the  supernat 
uralism  of  the  Mohammedan  belief  a  rationalism  or  a  mysti- 
cism similar  to  that  of  the  Gnostics,  and  to  develop  a  theology 
as  well  as  a  philosophy  based  upon  these  later  developments 
of  the  teachings  of  Plato  and  Aristotle.  Meeting  with  the 
same  opposition  from  orthodox  Mohammedanism  that  it  did 
from  orthodox  Christianity,  learning,  both  philosophical  and 
scientific,  was  expelled  from  the  East  by  the  less  enlightened 
fanaticism  of  the  orthodox  masses  and  sought  a  home  in  the 
West  among  the  Moslems  of  western  Africa  and  of  Spain 
where  the  caliphates,  independent  of  that  of  Bagdad,  had 
been  established.  It  cannot  be  said  that  this  philosophy  and 
learning  in  general  ever  affected  the  masses  of  the  popula- 
tion, or  that  there  was  any  great  creative  genius  inherent  in 
the  Arabic  mind.  But  they  were  quick  to  assimilate  and  to 
learn,  and  skillful  in  elaborating  and  adapting  Aristotelianism 
to  their  theology  and  their  scientific  knowledge.1 

In  Spain,  especially,  centering  in  the  school  of  Cordova, 
from  the  tenth  century  on,  this  learning  received  develop- 
ment and  many  brilliant  practical  applications.  Throughout 
their  western  caliphates  the  Saracens  established  libraries, 
higher  schools  similar  to  universities  and,  in  connection  with 
the  mosques  in  many  cities,  schools  for  the  instruction  of  the 
children.  While  Christian  Europe  was  enforcing  as  a  reli- 
gious belief  the  idea  that  the  world  was  flat,  the  Moors  were 
teaching  geography  from  globes.  When  the  Christians 

1  For  a  fuller  convenient  outline  of  Saracen  learning,  see  Davidson,  History  of 
Education,  pp.  138-149,  and  an  article  by  Wallace  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica; 
for  its  influence  on  philosophy,  see  Uberweg,  History  of  Philosophy,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
402-428;  for  its  relation  to  Christian  theology,  see  Moeller,  History  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  during  the  Middle  Ages,  pp.  422-435 ;  for  its  influence  on  univer- 
•ities,  tee  Raihdall,  Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
351-368;  and  for  the  general,  scientific,  and  intellectual  character  of  Saracen 
culture,  tee  Draper,  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,  Vol.  II,  Ch.  IL 


Middle  Ages  333 

finally  conquered  the  Mohammedans,  for  want  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  any  other  use,  they  turned  their  astronomical  obser- 
vatories into  belfries.  From  these  Arabs  came  in  the  tenth 
or  eleventh  century  the  knowledge  of  Hindoo  notation  as  a 
substitute  for  the  cumbersome  Roman  method.  Knowledge 
of  algebra,  as  well  as  of  advanced  arithmetical  processes, 
came  from  a  similar  source.  In  medicine,  in  surgery,  in 
pharmacy,  in  astronomy,  in  physiology,  they  added  much 
that  is  now  considered  elementary.  They  explained  the  re- 
fraction of  light,  gravity,  capillary  attraction,  and  twilight; 
they  determined  the  height  of  the  atmosphere,  the  weight  of 
air,  the  specific  gravity  of  bodies;  they  constructed  various 
astronomical  tables,  determined  corrections  for  parallax  and 
for  refraction ;  they  invented  the  pendulum  clock ;  in  com- 
merce, in  geographical  explorations,  in  navigation,  in  im- 
provements in  all  the  arts  of  life,  their  culture  was  far  ahead 
of  that  of  the  Europeans ;  they  introduced  the  use  of  rice, 
sugar,  and  cotton,  and  the  cultivation  of  silk;  they  made 
Europe  familiar  with  the  use  of  the  compass,  of  gunpowder, 
and  of  cannon.  Thus  in  many  ways  the  Arab  culture  served 
as  an  educational  agency  to  bring  the  civilization  of  the  West 
to  a  higher  level. 

But  it  is  in  regard  to  the  influence  on  the  schools  that 
we  are  more  directly  concerned.  By  the  twelfth  century  all 
intellectual  vitality  had  been  crushed  out  in  the  East,  while 
it  was  in  its  most  flourishing  condition  in  the  West.  In  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century  Raymund,  archbishop  of 
Toledo,  commanded  a  Jewish  scholar  to  translate  the  leading 
works  on  Arabic  philosophy  into  Castilian  ;  by  monks  it  was 
translated  thence  into  Latin.  Shortly  after  this  the  Em- 
peror  Frederick  II  had  the  commentaries  of  Averroes  and 
other  Aristotelian  writings  translated.  Only  a  brief  period 
intervened  when,  as  a  result  of  the  Latin  conquest  of  Con- 
stantinople, 1204,  the  Greek  version  of  Aristotle  became 
known  and  direct  translations  were  made.  By  the  thirteenth 


334  History  of  Education 

century  rigid  and  narrow  orthodoxy  had  triumphed  in  Sara- 
cen Spain,  and  Aristotelianism  and  Averroeism  were  driven 
out  from  their  previously  flourishing  seats  to  find  a  new 
home  among  the  Jewish  philosophers  and  in  the  Christian 
universities. 

Averroeism,  at  first  identified  with  rationalistic  free  thought, 
3ecame,  as  previously  had  Aristotelianism,  reduced  to  ortho- 
doxy. At  least,  this  was  true  so  far  as  it  was  a  commentary 
upon  Aristotle.  With  the  renewal  of  nominalism  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  the  master,  upon  being  given  the  right  to 
incept,  took  oath  to  teach  no  doctrines  contrary  to  those  of 
"  Aristotle  and  his  commentator  Averroes."  In  this  form, 
as  well  as  in  the  study  of  medicine  and  astrology,  Arabic 
learning  continued  to  exert  an  influence  throughout  the 
Middle  Ages,  when  every  spark  of  intellectual  vitality  had 
long  passed  from  the  Mohammedan  population  itself. 

FEATURES  OF  STUDENT  LIFE:  THE  WANDERING 
SCHOLAR.  —  With  the  decline  of  the  monastic  school  in  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  with  the  renewal  of  the  in- 
fluence of  cathedral  and  Church  school,  and  with  the  growth 
of  the  universities,  student  life,  now  much  freer  and  no 
longer  controlled  by  monastic  rule,  began  to  assume,  at  least 
upon  the  Continent,  a  peculiar  form.  This  feature,  which 
at  first  affected  only  the  university  student,  but  soon  became 
characteristic  of  the  more  elementary  students  as  well,  was 
the  custom  of  migrating  from  school  to  school  without  re- 
maining long  in  any  one  community.  The  friar  organizations 
had  conferred  new  dignity  upon  the  customs  of  begging, 
which  for  centuries  had  been  considered  a  virtue  in  the 
clergy  complementary  to  the  virtue  of  giving  in  the  laity,  and 
had  added  new  sanction  also  to  the  habit  of  wandering  from 
place  to  place.  The  custom  of  religious  pilgrimage  and  the 
Crusades  hac'  rendered  this  wandering  life  far  more  common 
and  also  more  secure ;  so  the  wandering  student  added  but 


Middle  Ages 


335 


one  more  element  to  the  floating  population  made  up  of 
friars,  pilgrims,  merchants,  craftsmen,  knights,  and  wander- 
ing Churchmen.1 

With ..  the  founding  of  the  universities  and  the  establish- 
ment  of  the  nations  in  practically  every  university,  it  became 
quite  customary  for  students  to  travel  from  university  to 
university,  finding  in  each  a  home  in  their  appropriate  nation. 
Many,  however,  willing  to  accept  the  privileges  of  the  clergy 
and  the  students  without  undertaking  their  obligations, 
adopted  this  wandering  life  as  a  permanent  one.  Being  a 


THE  BEGGING  STUDENTS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.    NUREMBERG,  FIFTEENTH 

CENTURY. 

privileged  order,  they  readily  found  a  living,  or  made  it  by 
begging.  A  monk  of  the  early  university  period  writes  :  "  The 
scholars  are  accustomed  to  wander  throughout  the  whole 
world  and  visit  all  the  cities ;  and  their  many  studies  bring 
them  understanding.  For  in  Paris  they  seek  a  knowledge 
of  the  liberal  arts ;  of  the  ancient  writers  at  Orleans ;  of 
medicine  at  Salernum ;  of  the  black  art  at  Toledo ;  and  in 
no  place  decent  manners." 

1  See  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Pilgrims  for  contemporary  description,  and  Jus« 
serand's  English  Wayfaring  Life  in  the  Middle  Ages  for  modern  description ; 
also  the  author's  Thomas  Platter  and  the  Educational  Renaissance  of  tht  Six* 
teenth  Cfntury 


330  History  of  Education 

Just  as  the  resident  students  were  organized  into  nations 
so  these  wandering  students  were  organized  into  a  guild, 
under  the  patronage  of  a  titular  magister  or  patron  saint, 
—  Golias.  Hence  they  were  called  goliardi.  The  typical 
goliards,  those  who  had  accepted  this  life  as  a  permanent 
calling,  were  riotous,  unthrifty,  unambitious  students,  who 
were  hangers-on  of  the  higher  clergy  or  who  wandered  from 
palace  to  palace  of  ecclesiastical  or  lay  lords.  As  such  they 
appear  in  literature,  contemporary  and  modern.  They  are 
responsible  for  a  considerable  literature  of  Latin  songs 
similar  in  many  respects  to  the  songs  of  modern  college 
students. 

But  soon  there  appeared  a  new  type  of  wandering  student. 
As  the  many  masters  exceeded  the  demand  for  university  in- 
struction, wandering  masters,  seeking  to  attach  themselves 
to  chantry  and  parochial  schools,  became  numerous ;  and  to 
these  were  added  the  youth  —  the  scholares  vagantes  —  who 
sought  to  obtain  a  knowledge  of  the  arts  from  these  schools, 
and  at  the  same  time  an  easy  living.  The  attractions  of  the 
world  were  added  to  those  of  the  arts  for  these  wandering 
scholars,  and  soon  the  cities  of  the  Continent,  now  since  the 
thirteenth  century  numerous  and  prosperous,  were  thronged 
with  such  students.  In  the  fourteenth  and  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury —  the  limits  of  the  period  cannot  be  assigned  —  the  cus- 
tom received  a  further  extension.  These  wandering  scholars 
added  to  their  ranks  smaller  boys,  often  not  over  six  or  seven 
years  of  age,  —  ABC  shooters  they  were  called,  —  who  ac- 
companied them,  ostensibly  to  acquire  the  rudiments  of 
knowledge  and  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  older  boys,  but  in 
reality  to  attend  them  as  servants,  to  beg  their  food,  to  sing 
for  money  or  food,  in  fact  to  make  their  living.  Such 
wandering  students  became  so  numerous  that  they  necessi- 
tated regulation  by  municipal  ordinance.  At  Nuremberg,  the 
center  of  German  learning  and  Renaissance  influences  during 
the  fifteenth  century,  a  city  ordinance  required  that  such 


Middle  Ages  337 

schools  should  send  out  only  one  begging  student  at  a  time, 
that  his  operations  should  be  restricted  to  a  given  parish,  and 
that  he  should  be  identified  by  the  picture  of  the  patron 
saint  of  the  school,  carried  on  the  basket  in  which  victuals 
were  to  be  collected. 

NEW  TYPES  OF  SCHOOLS.  — The  later  Middle  Ages 
were  well  supplied  with  schools,  not  all  of  which  were  domi- 
nated by  the  Church.  For  a  century  before  the  Reformation 
it  is  probable  that  schools  were  as  numerous  and  that  as  wide 
an  opportunity  for  study  existed  as  for  a  century  afterward. 
Monastic  schools  never  recovered  their  importance  after  the 
Renaissance  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Cathedral  schools 
that  grew  into  new  prominence  in  the  early  university  period 
were  insufficient  for  the  demand.  Not  only  secondary  but 
elementary  education  was  provided  in  the  fourteenth"  and 
fifteenth  centuries  in  a  much  more  general  way  than  ever 
before. 

An  important  and  probably  the  most  general  class  of  these 
were  the  chantry  schools.  Chantry  foundations  —  the  gift  of 
property  to  support  a  priest  in  return  for  prayers  for  the 
souls  of  the  benefactor  and  of  his  family,  or  for  certain  stipu- 
lated purposes  —  were  the  most  common  form  of  benefactions 
to  the  Church  during  the  later  Middle  Ages.  Thus  it  hap 
pened  that  foundations  for  priests  existed  beyond  all  demand 
for  parochial  service  ;  as  the  religious  services  required  by 
the  foundations  could  occupy  but  a  small  portion  of  time,  it 
became  customary  to  stipulate  that  such  priests  should  teach 
the  children  of  the  community.  As  a  matter  of  course,  the 
regulations  of  these  foundations  present  the  greatest  varia- 
tions. Some  provide  for  a  small  number  of  children,  some 
for  all  comers ;  some  provide  that  instruction  shall  be  gratis, 
some  permit  a  fee ;  some  indicate  that  the  merest  rudiments 
were  taught,  others  stipulate  that  instruction  shall  be  given 
in  grammar  and  the  higher  branches.  In  the  larger  towns, 


338  History  of  Education 

where  chantry  and  similar  foundations  were  numerous  enough 
to  support  a  body  of  priests  under  collegiate  organization, 
and  several  priests  could  be  designated  as  teachers,  schools 
sometimes  grew  up  that  rivaled  in  size  and  in  character  of 
work  the  schools  of  the  cathedral  foundations.  It  no  longer 
occurs  that  these  schools  are  controlled  by  monastic  teachers, 
for  aside  from  the  mendicant  orders,  the  monks  have  largely 
ceased  their  general  educational  activities. 

Another  type  of  school,  yet  more  free  from  ecclesiastical  _ 
control,  was  the  guild  school.  .  Very  commonly  did  the  mer- 
chant and  craft  guild  support  priests  for  the  performance  of 
all  sorts  of  religious  services  for  their  members.  Such  priests 
saw  the  child  of  the  guild  member  received  into  the  world 
with  proper  religious  rites  and  saw  him  decently  out ;  he 
celebrated  for  him  all  the  sacraments  ;  frequently  he  kept 
school.  Some  guilds  established  schools  of  great  repute, 
which  have  had  long  histories.  The  Merchant  Taylors'  School 
of  London  is  probably  the  most  notable.  Ordinarily  the 
school  was  but  an  elementary  one,  though  often  it  was  also 
a  grammar  school  for  the  children  of  the  guild  members  or 
for  others.  Such  schools  would  ordinarily  give  instruction 
in  other  subjects  than  Latin,  and  frequently  before  the 
Renaissance  came  to  give  instruction  in  the  vernacular. 
'.  jWith  the  coalescing  of  the  guild  organization  and  the  early 
;\\t^  municipal  government,  these  schools  along  with  many  of  the 
parish  schools  mentioned  above,  became  in  many  commu- 
-^  nities  the  burgher  schools.  Such  schools  were  largely  con- 
trolled and  supported  by  secular  authorities,  and  in  the 
content  of  their  school  work  better  represented  the  economic 
interests  and  demands  of  the  citizens.  They  were  often 
taught  by  priests,  though  lay  teachers  became  more  and  more 
numerous.  In  a  similar  way  private  schools,  usually  of  most 
elementary  character,  more  responsive  to  new  economic  and 
social  demands,  sprang  up.  However  irregular  these  private 
schools  were,  they  yet  contributed  to  the  development  of 


Middle  Ages  339 

independent  town  schools.  Clerical  inspection  was  yet  al- 
most universal,  and  the  Church  through  the  scholasticus  or 
some  other  episcopal  officer  or  even  through  the  parish 
priest,  sought  to  extend  its  jurisdiction  over  both  these  types 
of  schools. 

The  tendency  toward  the  establishment  of  those  schools 
was  well  marked  in  the  Teutonic  countries  before  the  Refor- 
mation movement  began.  In  Italy  it  is  doubtful  whether  the 
municipal  or  at  least  secular  private  schools  had  ever  ceased 
to  exist.  Certain  it  was  that  the  early  universities  sprang 
from  such  schools  where  there  had  been  some  elementary 
study  of  Roman  law  previous  to  the  foundation  of  Bologna. 
During  these  later  mediaeval  centuries  such  schools,  not  of  a 
university  grade  yet  free  from  ecclesiastical  control  and  gov- 
erned by  secular  interests,  were  quite  numerous. 

While  this  entire  subject  of  secular  schools  previous  to 
the  Reformation  is  a  question  of  controversy  concerning  the 
interpretation  of  historical  material,  it  is  evident  that 
the  preparation  has  been  made  before  the  Reformation 
for  the  secularization  of  education  that  was  to  follow. 

THE  NEW  LITERATURES  as  well  as  new  types  of  schools 
gave  expression  to  the  new  intellectual  interests  and  social 
demands,  and  indicated  that  neither  the  thought-life  nor  the 
life  of  material  interests  could  be  restrained  within  the  old 
channels.  It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  there  were  no  ver- 
nacular literatures  before  these  closing  centuries  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  In  German,  Icelandic,  and  Anglo-Saxon  among  the 
Teutonic  peoples,  and  in  French,  Irish,  and  Welsh  among 
the  Celts,  not  to  mention  other  minor  tongues,  there  was  a 
literature  covering  in  a  general  way  the  entire  dark  ages 
from  the  sixth  to  the  eleventh  century.  Treating  of  the 
heroic  deeds  of  their  leaders,  of  the  wonderful  prowess  and 
the  petty  intrigues  of  their  pagan  deities,  of  Biblical  story  or 
of  the  traditions  of  their  race,  such  literature  as  that  of  the 


340  History  of  Education 

Anglo-Saxon  and  the  old  High  German  is  for  the  most  part 
either  a  preservation  of  the  old  Teutonic  culture,  now  being 
committed  to  written  record,  that  represents  the  continuation 
of  the  old  in  the  face  of  the  conquering  and  hostile  Latin 
culture ;  or,  less  frequently,  it  represents  the  Latin  culture 
of  the  Christian  Church  put  into  vernacular  form. 

With  the  twelfth  century,  fostered  by  chivalry  and  by  the 
Crusade  movement  with  its  accompanying  motives,  there  was 
developed  in  court  and  palace,  by  bard  and  minstrel,  a  wholly 
new  literature  that  finds  no  parallel  and  no  opportunity  for 
expression  in  the  dominant  Latin  and  ecclesiastical  culture. 
This  literature,  technically  called  the  Middle  English,  the 
Middle  German,  etc.,  was  an  outgrowth  similar  to  that  of  the 
troubadours  of  southern  and  the  trouveres  of  northern  France. 
In  amorous  tale,  knightly  adventure,  daring  just  or  brilliant 
tournament,  expressing  alike  the  interest  of  the  court  and  the 
laity's  dislike  and  suspicion  of  motive  and  conduct  of  monk 
and  priest,  this  literature  is  the  beginning  of  modern  literature 
in  its  expression  of  new  interests  and  use  of  new  forms,  and 
at  the  same  time  a  force  making  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
dominance  of  authority  and  a  channel  for  the  expression  of 
heretical  views. 

One  other  type  of  literature  that  represents  a  protest 
against  the  dominant  absolutism  and  bespeaks  the  coming 
individualism  of  the  opening  of  the  modern  period  in  the 
fifteenth-century  Renaissance  was  that  created  by  the  wan- 
dering scholars.  As  would  be  natural  to  those  following  the 
profession  of  scholarship,  these  wandering  protestants  against 
the  fixed  hierarchical  despotism  of  established  society  used  the 
Latin  language ;  but  in  this  they  voiced  their  disgust  for 
the  hollow  and  hypocritical  character  of  the  established  for- 
malism, and  expressed  their  frank  enjoyment  of  natural 
interests  and  of  forbidden  pleasures  and  even  of  gross  indul- 
gence. Here,  for  the  first  time,  is  a  clear  and  conscious  re- 
turn to  the  motives  of  the  classical  poets,  and  the  themes  and 


Middle  Ages  341 

attitude  of  Horace  and  Ovid  are  now  repeated  in  a  Latin 
poetry  very  different  in  form  from  the  old. 

Both  of  these  new  types  of  literature  are  subjects,  large 
in  themselves,  which  thus  relate  to  the  new  intellectual  life 
of  the  people  of  the  later  Middle  Ages.  It  is  from  the  new 
vernacular  literature  that  there  is  to  develop  the  great  in- 
fluence, soon  no  longer  connected  with  the  class  of  chivalric 
nobility  alone.  In  this  respect  a  connection  is  made  between 
the  old  chivalric  education  and  the  new  education  of  the 
Renaissance  period.  But  as  yet,  however  much  it  may  influ- 
ence the  general  intellectual  life,  it  has  no  influence  upon 
school  life  and  upon  education  in  the  narrower  sense. 

In  a  peculiar  and  intimate  manner  one  of  these  works  of 
the  new  literature,  now  of  the  fourteenth  century,  expresses 
this  connection  between  the  Middle  Ages  and  modern  times, 
and  hence  may  be  taken  as  the  concrete  connecting  link 
between  the  two.  This  is 

THE  BANQUET  OF  DANTE  (1263-1321).  — It  is  not  with 
Dante  as  the  chief  exponent  of  the  spirit  life  of  man,  in 
which  he  is  as  modern  as  mediaeval,  that  we  are  here  con- 
cerned ;  but  with  Dante  as  an  exponent  of  mediaeval  thought. 
In  an  attempt  to  explain  his  own  writings  and  to  sum  up  the 
learning  of  the  times,  Dante  gives  in  The  Banquet  (II  Convito} 
a  characteristic  exposition  of  the  ideas,  the  intellectual  life, 
and  the  meaning  of  education  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Written 
probably  about  1310,  this  treatise  contains  elements  that  are 
strikingly  modern  and  others  that  are  typically  mediaeval. 
While  in  a  way  it  aimed  to  be  one  of  the  encyclopedias  of 
knowledge  so  characteristic  of  the  Middle  Ages,  it  did  not 
seek  to  give  a  summary  of  facts  and  events,  —  the  mere  ex- 
ternalities of  knowledge,  —  but  sought  rather  to  penetrate 
into  the  meaning  of  all  this  and  to  give  an  exposition  of  its 
spiritual  significance.  This  desire  to  penetrate  into  the  inner 
life,  this  interest  in  the  subjective,  this  conception  of  philos- 


342  History  of  Education 

ophy  and  of  learning  as  a  means  of  personal  development 
of  culture,  which  is  here  approached  though  not  fully  set 
forth,  is  modern.  Another  element  that  is  modern  is  the 
fact  that  a  large  portion  of  the  work  (Bk.  I,  Chs.  V-VIII) 
is  devoted  to  the  justification  of  the  use  of  the  vernacular  in 
this  and  in  other  of  his  works.  As  each  one  of  the  main 
reasons  is  amplified  into  a  number  of  points  in  the  most 
minute  analytical  manner,  the  form  of  the  argument  becomes 
a  most  striking  example  of  the  dominant  Aristotelianism, 
although  its  spirit  is  a  protest  against  it.  The  unbounded 
reverence  paid  to  Aristotle,  who  is  constantly  referred  to 
throughout  the  treatise  as  "  the  master,"  "  the  philosopher," 
or  simply  "  he,"  the  one  who  for  Dante  was  preeminently  the 
"  master  of  those  who  know,"  together  with  this  method  of 
scholastic  analysis  borrowed  from  the  master  and  the  methods 
of  fourfold  interpretation  (Bk.  II,  Ch.  i),  —  the  literal,  the 
allegorical,  the  mystical,  and  the  anagogical  or  moral,  —  all 
these  are  aspects  of  the  mediaevalism  of  the  great  poet.  In 
this  respect  The  Banquet  becomes  a  most  striking  exponent 
of  the  intellectual  life  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

In  Dante's  greatest  work,  the  Divine  Comedy,  this  fourfold 
interpretation  is  most  readily  seen.  In  a  literal  sense  the 
Commedia  is  a  presentation  of  the  rewards  and  punishments, 
the  destiny  of  man  in  the  hereafter ;  allegorically,  it  is  a 
presentation  of  the  virtues  and  vices  of  the  human  soul  as 
illustrated  in  concrete  examples  and  in  the  details  of  the 
plan ;  morally,  it  has  as  its  social,  political,  and  ethical  pur- 
poses, the  making  of  worthier  citizens,  better  neighbors, 
nobler  men  ;  mystically,  it  typifies  the  struggle  of  the  human 
soul  to  become  free,  its  growth  through  sin  to  holiness,  its 
progress  from  the  finite  to  the  divine.  In  a  similar  way  The 
Banquet  is  a  fourfold  interpretation  of  some  stanzas,  written 
in  earlier  life  of  Beatrice, —  now  identified  with  philosophy, 
—  in  which  exposition  the  entire  scheme  of  the  thought-life 
and  incidentally  of  the  education  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  set 
forth. 


Middle  Ages  343 

The  conception  of  the  universe  here  presented  (  The  Ban- 
quet, Bk.  II,  Chs.  III-VI)  gives  the  cosmology,  the  theol- 
ogy, the  psychology,  the  educational  theory,  of  the  Middle 
Ages. 

For  the  unintelligent  the  world  was  a  flat  disk,  around  which 
flowed  the  stream  Ocean  us,  and  over  which  was  placed  a 
crystal  vault,  in  which  were  fixed,  as  in  a  ceiling,  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars.  Beyond  this  vault  lived  the  gods  and 
spirits,  and  thus  the  entire  universe  was  composed.  But  in 
the  minds  of  the  intelligent  there  prevailed  a  system 
founded  primarily  on  the  idea  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  and 
called  the  Ptolemaic  (see  p.  170).  This  universe  as  made 
entirely  for  man  is  thus  described  by  Dante.  With  the  earth 
as  a  center  the  heavens  consist  of  nine  huge  spheres  fitting 
one  into  the  other,  which  turn  one  upon  the  other.  To  the 
first  seven  of  these  spheres  are  fixed  in  succession  the  moon, 
Mercury,  Venus,  the  sun,  Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn.  As 
the  spheres  move  in  one  direction  the  "  planets  "  move  slowly 
in  the  opposite.  Beyond  the  seventh  heaven  is  that  of  the 
fixed  stars  ;  the  ninth  is  the  "  crystalline  heavens,"  or  tftt 
Primnm  Mobile,  moving  with  greatest  rapidity  and  impart- 
ing its  movements  to  all  the  rest.  The  tenth  heaven  is  the 
Empyreum,  or  "  luminous  heaven,"  which  alone,  as  the  abode 
of  eternal  rest,  is  without  movement. 

"And  this  is  the  reason  that  the  Primnm  Mobile  moves 
with  immense  velocity :  because  the  fervent  longing  of  all 
its  parts  to  be  united  to  those  of  this  tenth  and  most  divine 
and  quiet  heaven,  makes  it  revolve  with  so  much  desire  that 
its  velocity  is  almost  incomprehensible.  And  this  quiet  and 
peaceful  heaven  is  the  abode  of  that  Supreme  Deity  who 
alone  doth  perfectly  behold  Himself.  This  is  the  abode  of  the 
beatified  spirits,  according  to  the  holy  church,  who  cannot 
lie,  and  Aristotle  also  seems  to  think  so,  if  rightly  understood, 
in  the  first  of  The  Heavens  and  Earth.  This  is  the  supreme 
edifice  of  the  universe,  in  which  all  the  world  is  included,  and 
beyond  which  is  nothing  ;  and  it  is  not  in  space,  but  was 


.544  History  of  Education 

formerly  solely  in  the  Primal  Mind,  which  the  Greeks  call 
Protonce.  This  is  that  magnificence  of  which  the  Psalmist 
spake,  when  he  says  to  God,  'Thy  magnificence  is  exalted 
above  the  Heavens.' " 

This  entire  explanation  of  Dante's  (Bk.  II,  Ch.  IV),  in  its 
dependence  upon  authority,  in  its  attempt  to  harmonize  Greek 
philosopher  and  Hebrew  psalmist,  in  its  allegorical  interpre- 
tation of  texts,  in  its  arrangement  of  argument,  is  typically 
mediaeval. 

The  hierarchy  of  heavenly  spheres  is  paralleled  by  these 
successive  hierarchies  of  spirits  which  preside  over  them. 
"  The  motive  powers  of  the  Heaven  of  the  Moon  are  of  the 
order  of  Angels  ;  and  those  of  Mercury  of  Archangels  ;  and 
those  of  Venus  are  the  Thrones,  which  informed  of  the  love 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  perform  their  work,  that  is  the  movement 
of  this  heaven  filled  with  love,  according  to  the  nature  of  that 
love."  Vergil,  Ovid,  mediaeval  astrology,  and  the  Bible  are 
unified  in  this  interpretation.  Then  follow,  corresponding  to 
the  appropriate  spheres,  dominions,  virtues,  principalities, 
powers,  Cherubim,  and  Seraphim  ;  finally  the  trilogy  is  com- 
pleted with  the  dominance  of  the  Trinity  over  the  Empyreum. 
Thus  again  are  the  angels  and  spirits  of  the  Bible,  the  ideas 
of  Plato,  the  word  of  St.  John,  the  gods  of  classic  mythology, 
che  mysticism  and  demonology  of  the  Middle  Ages  unified  and 
interpreted.  Thus  are  explained  the  stages  of  development  of 
the  human  soul ;  thus,  in  the  impartation  of  movement  from 
the  crystalline  to  the  other  heavens,  and  the  longing  "  of 
every  particle  of  the  crystalline  heaven  to  be  united  with 
every  particle  of  the  most  divine  tranquil  heaven,"  the  per- 
vading love  and  unifying  tendency,  the  uplifting  influence  of 
the  love  of  God. 

But  this  unity  and  this  interpretation  includes  not  the  spirit- 
ual and  moral  life  alone ;  it  dominates  the  intellectual,  which 
is  incorporated  in  the  same  general  explanation.  It  is  im- 
possible in  a  restricted  space  to  enter  into  all  the  intricacies 


Middle  Ages 


345 


THE  MEDIAEVAL  CURRICULUM  AI.LEGORICALLY  REPRESENTED  AS  THE  TKMPLK 

OF  WISDOM. 

of  the  reasons  why,  as  he  states,  "  he  says  heaven  when  he 
means  science,  and  heavens  when  he  means  sciences."     "To 


346  History  of  Education 

the  first  seven  correspond  the  seven  sciences  of  the  Trivium 
and  the  Quadrivium,  that  is,  to  Grammar,  Dialectic,  Rhetoric, 
Arithmetic,  Music,  Geometry,  and  Astrology.  To  the  eighth 
sphere,  that  is,  to  the  starry  Heavens,  correspond  Natural 
Science,  called  Physics,  and  the  first  of  sciences  called  Meta- 
physics ;  to  the  ninth  sphere  corresponds  Moral  Science;  and 
to  the  Quiet  Heaven  corresponds  Divine  Science,  which  is 
called  Theology."  Hence  throughout  the  treatise  wherever 
he  uses  the  term  heavens  or  any  particular  heaven,  he  is 
referring  to  the  appropriate  science,  and  describing  in  an 
allegorical  way  its  characteristics  and  influences. 

The  heaven  of  Venus  is  compared  with  rhetoric,  because 
it  is  the  most  charming  of  all  the  sciences,  as  Venus  is  the 
brightest  of  the  planets;  and  because  as  Venus  is  now  a 
morning,  now  an  evening  star,  so  rhetoric  now  as  oratory 
appears  before  the  face  of  the  speaker,  now  as  literature, 
speaks  from  a  distance.  The  sun  is  compared  with  arithme- 
tic, because  it  illumines  all  the  other  sciences,  and  because,  as 
the  eye  cannot  look  upon  the  sun,  so  "  the  eye  of  the  intel- 
lect cannot  look  upon  it;  because  Number,  considered  in 
itself,  is  infinite,  and  that  we  cannot  comprehend." 

Though  but  three  of  the  proposed  fourteen  books,  or 
courses  at  this  intellectual  banquet,  were  completed,  and 
hence,  though  a  most  complete  and  authoritative  summary 
of  the  learning  of  the  Middle  Ages  by  its  greatest  genius  is 
denied  us,  yet  in  the  fragment  written  the  spirit  of  the  intel- 
lectual life  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  spirit  that  partakes  both 
of  scholasticism  and  mysticism,  finds  one  of  its  clearest  ex- 
pressions. It  illustrates  perfectly  this  judgment  of  Federn  : 
"  There  never  was  a  time  when  so  little,  and  at  the  same  time 
so  much,  was  known  as  in  the  Middle  Ages,  for  people 
really  knew  everything;  they  had  a  ready  explanation  for 
every  phenomenon ;  very  clever  explanations  they  often 
were,  but  always  untested ;  whatever  was  or  seemed  possible, 
whatever  could  be  made  plausible  in  words,  was  immediately 


Middle  Ages  347 

accepted  ;  people  did  not  like  to  doubt,  and  even  the  impos- 
sible could  be  dealt  with  and  accepted  as  a  miracle." 


SELECTED  REFERENCES 

I.  Books   not   dealing  specially   with   education   but  of  fundamental 
importance  in  acquiring  an  understanding  of  the  period. 

Adams,  Civilization  during  the  Middle  Ages.     (New  York,  1899.) 
Draper,  The  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe.     (New  York,  1876.) 
Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  esp.  Chs.  16-20,  and  37. 
Hatch,  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  and  Usages  on  the  Christian  Church. 

(London,  1895.) 
Lecky,  History  of  Eiiropean  Morals  from  Augustus  to  Charlemagne. 

(New  York,  1870.) 

MacCabe,  St.  Augustine  and  his  Age.     (New  York,  1903.) 
MacCabe,  Abelard.     (New  York,  1901.) 
Maitland,  The  Dark  Ages.     (London,  1890.) 
Milman,  History  of  Early  Christianity.     (London,  1883.) 
Milman,  Hi 'story  of  Latin  Christianity.     (London,  1883.) 
Montalembert,  The  Monks  of  the  West.     (New  York,  1896.) 
Poole,  Illustrations  of  Mediaeval  Thought.     (London,  1884.) 
Sandys,  A  History  of  Classical  Scholarship. 

Taylor,  Classical  Heritage  of  the  Middle  Ages.     (New  York,  1901.) 
Townsend,  Great  Schoolmen  of  the  Middle  Ages.     (London,  1881.) 

II.  Books  relating  directly  to  education. 

Compayre,  Abelard  and  the  Origin  and  Early  History  of  Universities 

(New  York,  1897.) 

Cornish,  Chivalry,  esp.  Ch.  III.     (London,  1901.) 
Drane,  Christian  Schools  and  Scholars.     (London,  1881.) 
Emerton,  Mediaeval  Europe,  Ch.  13.     (New  York,  1894.) 
Gaskoin,  Alcuin,  his  Life  and  his  Works.     (London,  1904.) 
Laurie,  Rise  and  Constitution  of  Universities.     (New  York,  1887.) 
Mills,  History  of  Chivalry,  Vol.  I,  Ch.  II.     (London,  1826.) 
Monroe,  Thomas  Platter  and  the  Educational  Renaissance  of  the  Sixteenth 

Century.     (New  York,  1904.) 

Montalembert  (The  Monks  of  the  West).     Bk.  18,  Ch.  iv. 
Mullany,  Essays  Educational,  I  and  2.     (Chicago,  1896.) 
Mullinger,  The  Schools  of  Charles  the  Great.     (London,  1877.) 


348  History  of  Education 

Putnam,  Books  and  their  Makers  during  the  Middle  Ages,  pp.    1-144 

(New  York,  1896.) 
Rashdall,  Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages,  3  vols.     (Oxford 

1895.)     The  best  work  upon  the  subject. 
Robinson,  Readings  in  European  History.     (Boston,  1904.) 
West,  Alcuin  and  the  Rise  of  Christian  Schools.     (New  York,  1892.) 
Williams,  Edufation  during  the  Middle  Ages.     (Syracuse,  1903.) 


TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  INVESTIGATION 

1 .  Compare  the  basis  of  the  disciplinary  conception  of  education  in  the 
Middle  Ages  with  the  basis  of  the  modern  conception  of  education  as 
formal  discipline. 

2.  What  relation  can  you  discover  between  the  conception  of  the  de- 
pravity of  human  nature  held  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  attitude 
toward  interest  in  education? 

3.  What  provisions  for  literary  and  intellectual  education  can  you  dis- 
cover in  the  rules  of  the  various  monastic  orders? 

4.  Work  out  the  history  of  the  educational  influence  of  any  one  particular 
monastery,  e.g.  St.  Gall,  Fulda,  Reichnau,  Monte  Cassino,  etc. 

5.  Work  out  the  educational  influence  of  any  one  monastic  order,  es- 
pecially of  the  mendicant  orders  in  any  one  country;  eg.  the  Franciscans 
or  Dominicans  in  England. 

6.  To  what   extent   could   the   duty   of  copying   manuscripts   furnish 
education  to  the  monks? 

7.  Trace  the  development  of  the  conception  of  the  Seven  Liberal  Arts. 

8.  What  was  the  content  of  the  Seven  Liberal  Arts  as  presented  by  any 
one  writer?     E.g.,  Alcuin,  Rabanus  Maurus,  etc. 

9.  What  similarity  exists  between  the  symbolism  in  education  in  medi- 
aeval ages  and  that  of  modern  times? 

10.  What  connection  do  you  find  between  the  chivalric  education  and 
the  conception  of  education  of  modern  times,  later  discussed  under  the 
head  of  social  realism? 

u.  What  connection  between  these  two  and  that  modern  view  which 
holds  that  the  chief  function  of  college  education  is  to  produce  the  character 
of  a  "gentleman  of  leisure  and  of  culture"  ? 

12.  Work  out  in  detail  the  education  of  a  page  or  of  a  squire. 

13.  What  educational  value  can  you  discover  in  the  study  of  dialectic  as 
pursued  by  the  Schoolmen? 

14.  Which  of  the  two  methods  of  scholastic  study  possessed  the  greater 
educational  value?  Why?  Which  possessed  the  greater  social  value?  Why? 


Middle  Ages  349 

15.  Compare  a  day  in  the  life  of  a  university  student  in  a  mediaeval  uni- 
versity with  one  in  the  life  of  a  modern  university  student,  with  an  attempt 
to  discover  the  educational  value  of  the  activities  of  each. 

1 6.  Select  some  of  the  questions  debated  by  the  Schoolmen,  and  indicate 
the  educational  value  to  be  derived  from  their  study. 

17.  Study  in  detail  the  life  of  any  one  of  the  great  Schoolmen,  and  from 
his  teachings  and  writings  indicate  its  educational  significance. 

1 8.  Work  out  in  detail  the  nature  of  the  nations,  the  development  of  the 
faculty,  the  course  of  study  of  any  one  mediaeval  university. 

19.  Describe  the  influence  of  the  friars  on  the  life  of  any  one  mediaeval 
university. 

20.  Describe  in  greater  detail  the  influence  of  Aristotle  on  the  mediaeval 
university. 

21 .  Trace  the  influence  of  the  Saracens  on  any  one  subject  of  study  dur- 
ing the  later  Middle  Ages.     ( See  the  general  historical  material  relating  to 
the  early  histories  of  universities.) 

22.  Describe  the  life  of  the  wandering  scholar  as  given  in  the  autobi- 
ography of  Thomas  Platter  or  of  Johannes  Butzbach. 

23.  Describe  the  beginnings  of  the  secular  schools  of  any  one  country 
during  these  later  mediaeval  centuries. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  EDUCATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  FROM  THE 
FOURTEENTH  TO  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 


POLITICAL 
EVENTS  AND 
PERSONAGES 

LITFRARV  MEN 
AND  SCIENTISTS 

RELIGIOUS 
EVENTS  AND 
PERSONAGES 

EDUCATORS  AND 
EDUCATIONAL 
WRITINGS 

EDUCATIONAL 
EVENTS 

1300. 

Marco  Polo 

1302.    Philip  of 

William  of  Occam 

1343.    U.  Pisa  f. 

'339-M53-     One 
Hund.Yrs.'  War 

1234-1324 
Dante  .  1265-1321 

France  triumphs 
over  Boniface. 

1270-1347 
Jean  Gerson 

1347.     U.  Prague  f. 
1349.     U.  Florence  f. 

Edward      III     of 

Petrarch 

1312.    Suppression 

1363  1429 

1362.     Use    of    Eng. 

Eng.    1327-1377. 

1304-1374 

of  Templars. 

Paulus  Vergerius 

est.  in  law  courts 

1347      Rienzi. 

Boccaccio 

John  Tauler 

1349-1420 

1365.     U.  Vienna  f. 

1347  9     Black 
Death 

13*3-1375 
Chaucer 

1290-1361 
Wycliffe     ' 

1384.     School  at 
Daventer  founded. 

1356      Poitiers. 

1328  1400 

1324-1384 

1386.     U.  Heidelberg 

1356.    The  Seven 

I3°9-'377-     Baby- 

f. 

Electors  estab- 

lonian Captivity. 

1387.     Winchester  f. 

lished  by  charter. 

1387-1417.     The 

1392.     U.  Erfurt  f. 

1350  1500.     Hansa 
League. 

Great  Schism. 
1384.   Breth.  Com. 

1397-1400.     Chryso- 
foras  teaches  GreiV 

Life  f. 

at  Florence 

1400 

Lorenzo  Valla 

1414.     Council  of 

Vittorino  da 

1428.     Vitterino 

1431      Joan  of  Arc 
burned. 

1407-1457 
Leonardo  Brunt 

Constance. 
1418.     Council  of 

Feltra  1378  1446 
Cosimo  de  Medic 

establishes  school 
at  Mantua. 

1453      Fall  of 

1369-1444 

Basle. 

1389-1446 

1440.     Eton  founded. 

Constantinople. 

Pico  da  Mirandola 

1415.     John  Huss 

Wessel   1420-1495 

1455      First  book 

1455  1485      War 

(1463-1494)  and 

burned. 

Hegius  1420  1495 

printed. 

of  Roses. 

the  Platonic 

Thomas  a  Kempis 

Battista  Guarino 

1458.     Greek  taught 

1474-1509.     Ferdi- 

Academy. 

1380-1472 

1434  1460 

at  Paris. 

nand  and 

Leonardo  da 

Savonarola 

John  Reuchlin 

1460     New  learning 

Isabella  of  Spain 

Vinci   1452-1519 

1452-1498 

1455-1522 

at  Heidelberg. 

1494    Charles  VIII 
of  France  in 

Raphael 
1485-1520 

Jacob  Wimpfel- 
ing      1450-1528 

1494      First  chair  of 
"  Poetry  "    in     N 

Italy. 
1498-1515.     Italian 

1452.     Pope 
Pius  II., 

Europe  (at  Erfurt). 
1496.     Humanism  in 

war.  of  Louis  XI. 

De  Liberorum 

city  schools  of 

1462-1505.     Ivan 

Educatione. 

Nuremberg. 

the  Great. 

Colet      1456  1519 

Linacre  1460-1524 

Wm.  Lilly 

1468-1522 

1500. 
1520.     Magellan 
circumnavigates 

Erasmus 
I457-J536 
Michael  Angelo 

Luther  .  1483-1546 
1517.     Luther's 
Theses. 

Erasmus 
1467-1536 
Thomas  More 

1502.     University  of 
Wittemberg  founded 
1510-1513.     Erasmus 

the  globe 

1475-1564 

1521.     Diet  at 

1478-1535 

teaches  Greek  at 

1534.     Peasants' 
War 
Henry  VIII 

Anostn    1474-1533 
Copernicus 
'473-J543 

Worms. 
1535.    Suppression 
of  monasteries 

Rabelais 
Melanchthon 

Cambridge. 
1510.     St.  Paul's  f. 
1519.     Erfurt  and 

1509-1547 
1533.     Reb.  of 
Geneva. 

Tycho-BraW 
1546  i  601 
Shakespeare 

in  England. 
1540.     Jesuit 
Order  founded. 

1497  1560 
Trotzendorf 
1490-1556 

Leipzig 
reorganized  on 
humanistic  basis. 

Edward  VI 

1564-1616 

1538.    English  Act 

Vives  .  1492-1540 

1524.     First  Protes- 

«547-'553 
Elizabeth 

Kepler     1571-1630 

of  Supremacy. 
I545-I563.     Coun- 

Sturm    1507-1589 
Ascham  1515-1568 

tant  City  Schools. 
1524.     Luther's 

15581603 

cil  of  Trent. 

Montaigne 

Address  to 

1588      .M>anuh 

Zwingli   1484-1531 
Knnx      .  1505-1572 

1533  '59» 
Peter  Ramus 

German  Cities 
1526.     Melanchthon 

Calvin  .  1509-1564 
1542.     Inquisition 

1  5i  5~i  57* 
Michael  Neander 

opens  gymnasium 
at  Nuremberg. 

introduced. 

'525-1595 

1528.     Saxony 

1553.     Servetus 

1571.     Ascham  s 

School  Plan. 

burned. 

Schooltnastir. 

1537.     Sturm's 

•555-     Peace  of 

1531.    Elyot's 

School  founded. 

Augsburg. 

Govtrnour, 

1540.     Jesuit  order  f 

1572.     St.  Bar- 

first work  in  Eng 

1559.     Wiirtemberg 

tholomew's 

on  education. 

School  Plan  ;  first 

massacre. 

tlulcaster 

sys.  of  Pub.  Sch 

1508.     Edict  of 
Nantes. 

I53i-i6n 

rlulcaster  s 

1599.     Final  form  of 
Jesuit  Ratio 

Positions    1581 

Studiorutn. 

CHAPTER  VI 
THE  RENAISSANCE  AND   HUMANISTIC  EDUCATION 

What  the  Renaissance  Was. — The  Renaissance  of  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  brought  radical  changes 
in  educational  practice  similar  to  those  in  the  intellectual 
life.  The  view  of  education  which  found  no  worthy  aims 
or  interest  in  this  life  except  as  they  were  connected  as 
a  preparation  directly  with  the  life  to  come,  which  looked 
upon  schooling  as  a  discipline  merely  introductory  to  this 
greater  discipline  of  life,  which  limited  instruction  to  the 
training  of  the  mind  in  a  few  activities  and  those  not  the 
highest,  gave  way  during  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  cen- 
turies to  a  conception  of  education  entirely  different.  This 
new  view  contained  the  germs  of  all  modern  educational  de- 
velopment. As  the  appropriate  subject-matter  of  education, 
the  new  education  opposed  to  the  old  a  radically  different 
interpretation  of  Greek  philosophy.  It  rejected  the  meta- 
physics of  Aristotle  in  favor  of  his  physics ;  it  exalted  Plato 
above  Aristotle  and  found  a  place  for  the  literature  of  the 
Romans  and  of  the  Greeks  as  expressive  of  the  best  that  is 
in  man,  in  humanity,  and  in  nature.  In  its  method  the  new 
absolutely  rejected  that  attitude  of  mind  characteristic  of  the 
old,  which  drew  authoritative  deductions  and  hence  all  knowl- 
edge from  conceptions  which,  though  they  might  be  estab- 
lished by  ecclesiastical  authority  or  scholastic  traditions,  were 
mere  assumptions.  In  its  form  the  new  education  declined  to 
express  itself  in  or  be  bound  by  the  stiff,  formal,  and  even 
crude  Latin  of  the  Church  and  of  the  school,  but  aspired  to 

35' 


35?  History  of  Education 

the  freedom,  the  expressiveness,  and  the  beauty  of  classical 
literature. 

The  new  conception  of  education  resulted  from  a  profound 
social  change,  the  causes  of  which  were  numerous  and  far- 
reaching.  The  logically  perfect  systems  of  education  which 
dominated  the  Middle  Ages,  whether  for  the  monk,  the  cleric, 
or  the  secular  leader,  were  unstable  because  of  their  very 
perfection.  In  their  completeness  they  permitted  no  change, 
no  progress ;  they  made  no  provision  for  the  individual. 
While  the  monastic  life  furnished  a  moral  discipline,  it  pro- 
vided for  no  progressive  application  in  life  of  power  when 
developed,  since  the  monk  was  separated  from  the  world  ; 
hence  the  tendency  to  fall  away  from  higher  ideals  and  the 
inability  of  such  standards  to  meet  developing  needs.  The 
perfected  system  'of  chivalry  gave  no  place  to  the  common 
man  that  could  be  tolerated  for  long,  nor  did  it  offer  possi- 
bility of  attainment  to  nor  require  obligations  from  the  higher 
classes  that  could  be  satisfactory  even  for  a  time.  Scholasti- 
cism had  constructed  an  elaborate  and  perfected  system  of 
thought  which  fettered  the  intellect,  though  from  its  subject- 
matter  such  glimpses  of  freedom  were  gained  as  together 
with  the  power  gained  from  the  intellectual  activity  were 
soon  to  prove  instrumental  in  bringing  about  its  overthrow. 
These  structures  of  thought,  erected  with  so  much  labor  as 
palaces  in  which  to  dwell,  proved  to  be  but  prisons  ;  and  as 
the  architects  completed  the  edifice,  those  for  whom  they  were 
designed  overthrew  what  they  saw  to  be  symbols  of  their 
slavery.  Yet  from  the  debris  of  these  edifices  the  succeed- 
ing generation  laid  the  foundations  of  the  structure  of  modern 
thought.  The  completion  of  the  Crusade  movement  in  the 
fourteenth  century  saw  the  destruction  of  the  contentment  of 
the  people  under  the  rigid  system  of  scholastic  thought  and 
the  perfected  control  of  ecclesiastical  organization  ;  the  unH 
versities  stimulated  the  zeal  for  the  intellectual  life  ;  the  grow 
ing  cities,  with  their  industries  and  their  commerce,  furnished 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      353 

Uie  opportunity  for  the  development  of  those  economic  inter 
ests  which  are  fundamental  in  modern  life  and  for  the  accu- 
mulation of  that  wealth  and  power  which  was  to  reproduce, 
at  least  in  north  Italy,  the  city  states  of  the  classic  type  of 
Greece  ;  the  invention  of  gunpowder  made  it  possible  for 
the  common  man  to  challenge  the  power  of  any  authority 
dependent  on  physical  prowess ;  while  the  printing  press 
opened  up  the  treasures  of  Greek  and  Roman  thought  and 
achievement  to  every  one  seeking  light  and  truth. 

Thus  the  unity  of  mediaeval  thought,  as  the  historical 
development  of  the  time  reveals  to  have  been  the  case  with 
the  similar  unity  of  life,  ultimately  broke  up  into  the  multi- 
ple interests  and  activities  characteristic  of  modern  times. 
Thought  lost  its  unified  or  corporate  character.  Education 
ceased  to  find  its  aim  in  such  an  adjustment  of  the  individual 
into  a  perfected  scheme  of  thought  and  action  that  he  lost  his" 
individuality  and  found  expression  only  through  the  institu- 
tionalized whole.  In  pla~^  of  this  there  developed  in  the 
greatest  variety  of  forms  that  individualism  which  is  so  char- 
acteristic of  the  early  Renaissance,  and  which  renders  it  diffi- 
cult to  express  either  the  intellectual  traits  or  the  educational 
practices  of  that  period  in  terms  other  than  those  of  personal 
characteristics.  The  extreme  individualism  remained  typical 
only  of  the  earlier  period  and  soon  crystallized  itself  socially 
into  movements,  and  educationally  into  types  of  schools. 

Though  the  activities  of  the  Renaissance  were  most  varied, 
they  may  be  summed  up  in  three  general  tendencies,  repre- 
senting three  great  interests  almost  unknown  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  opening  up  to  the  student  three  worlds  or 
aspects  of  life  that  had  for  many  centuries  remained  almost 
unknown.  The  first  of  these  new  worlds  was  the  real  life  of 
the  past,  — the  life  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans  who  had 
possessed  infinitely  more  varied  interests,  and  consequently  a 
wider  knowledge  of  life  and  of  its  possibilities  than  had  the 
people  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  classic  ages  had  expressed 


354  History  of  Education 

this  interest  by  means  of  a  literature  and  an  art  incomparably 
superior  to  any  produced  during  the  intervening  centuries,  — 
centuries  which  had  been  not  so  much  ignorant  of  as  indif- 
ferent to  them.  The  second  of  these  worlds  was  the  subjective 
one,  the  world  of  emotions, — of  the  joy  of  living,  of  the  con- 
templative pleasures  and  satisfactions  of  this  life,  of  the  appre- 
ciation of  the  beautiful :  an  interest  in  introspective  observation 
and  analysis,  from  the  aesthetic  and  human  rather  than  from 
the  philosophical  and  religious  point  of  view.  The  means  to 
such  a  world  as  this  is  through  the  fullest  participation  in 
activities  and  interests  of  the  life  around  one;  the  purpose 
of  such  a  study  is  self-culture  and  improvement ;  the  result 
of  it  is  literature  and  art.  Of  this  world  mediaeval  thought 
had  been  wholly  ignorant.  The  third  of  these  worlds  was 
that  of  nature  around  them,  a  realm  not  only  unknown  to 
the  people  of  the  mediaeval  centuries,  but  considered  ignoble 
and  debasing  in  its  influence  on  man. 

The  first  of  these  great  world  discoveries  led  to  a  wider 
and  more  intensive  study  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages ; 
to  a  devotion  to  the  classic  literature  of  both  languages ;  to  a 
search  for  the  manuscript  remains  of  this  literature  until  this 
quest  had  brought  to  light  substantially  all  that  we  pos- 
sess to-day ;  to  a  passion  for  the  collection  of  these  manu- 
scripts, consequently  to  their  multiplication,  and  finally 
through  the  discovery  of  printing  to  their  general  dissemina- 
tion. The  mistake  should  not  be  made,  however,  of  confusing 
the  means  of  this  Renaissance  with  its  cause  or  with  its  end. 
The  recovery  of  the  classical  literature  was  not  the  cause, 
for  that,  as  we  have  noticed,  lies  far  deeper  and  more  remote 
in  the  whole  movement  of  history  and  of  thought.  Nor  was 
it  the  purpose  of  the  Renaissance,  even  in  the  case  of  the  few 
notable  leaders  such  as  Petrarch,  who  were  possessed  by  a 
consuming  passion  for  the  recovery  of  the  works  of  the 
ancients.  These  books  were  merely  means  to  that  culture, 
that  advancement  in  knowledge  and  breadth  of  view  and 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      35; 

of  experience  which  made  these  men  the  earlier  leaders  o. 
this  movement. 

In  this  recovered  literature  the  three  new  tendencies  of 
thought  previously  mentioned  find  their  basis  and  through  it 
they  first  work  themselves  out.  These  tendencies  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  the  various  conceptions  of  education  prevalent 
during  the  following  centuries.  Opposed  to  the  formal 
Aristotelianism  of  scholasticism  there  arose  first  a  Platonism, 
or  rather  a  Neoplatonism,  that  was  wholly  contradictory  to 
every  aspect  of  accepted  thought  and  that  expressed  itself 
most  thoroughly  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  Renaissance. 
Starting  from  the  ultra-Platonic  development  of  the  last 
stages  of  Greek  thought,  it  revealed  itself  in  an  extreme 
individualism  which  furnished  the  philosophical  basis  of  the 
ideal  of  self-culture  and  self-development,  in  the  efforts 
toward  a  purely  self-centered  education,  and  in  the  idea  of 
human  or  collective  immortality,  or  that  aspiration  to  "  live 
in  minds  made  better  by  their  presence  "  as  a  substitute  for 
the  heaven  of  the  monastic  rules.  According  to  this  view  of 
life,  all  knowledge  of  the  world,  yes,  even  all  knowledge  of  GOG, 
was  locked  up  in  man's  knowledge  of  himself  and  was  to  be 
revealed  through  contemplation,  introspection,  self-analysis, 
just  as  the  heaven  it  contemplated  was  one  of  its  own  crea 
tion.  A  second  literary  revival  was  that  of  a  purer  Aristotle, 
one  shorn  of  much  of  the  Oriental  gloss  of  the  Arabic  com 
mentators  and  one  revealed  rather  in  his  physics  than  in  the 
fragment  of  his  metaphysics  possessed  by  the  Schoolmen. 
Through  this  Aristotle  there  was  a  working  back  to  the  point 
of  view  of  the  earlier  Greek  philosophers,  concerned  as  they 
were  in  the  theory  of  a  natural  universe  rather  than  in  one 
of  knowledge  or  of  man,  and  a  working  forward  to  that  search 
for  the  knowledge  of  reality  made  by  modern  science.  A 
third  phase  of  this  literary  revival  centered  chiefly  around 
Latin  literature,  and  was  opposed  to  the  scholastic  literature 
on  account  of  its  inferiority  of  form.  Essentially  individua/ 


356  History  of  Education 

and  concrete,  hence  aesthetic  in  its  tendencies,  the  Renaissance 
temper  rejected  all  dealing  with  abstract  conceptions,  and 
demanded  the  concrete,  the  real,  that  which  appealed  to  the 
imagination  and  the  heart,  even  though  it  was  no  more  than 
the  beauty  of  literary  form  alone.  While  all  of  these  tenden- 
cies were  apparent  from  the  first,  and  while  no  definite 
schools  represent  this  analysis  of  thought  tendencies,  yet  the 
Platonic  and  individualistic  tendency  was  characteristic  of  the 
fourteenth  and  early  fifteenth  centuries;  the  inductive  Aristo- 
telian and  scientific  aspect  did  not  become  dominant  until  the 
seventeenth;  while  the  Ciceronian  literary  phase  was  virtually 
in  control  during  all  the  intervening  period. 

We  have  spoken  of  all  of  this  as  a  result  of  the  discovery 
of  the  first  of  the  Renaissance  worlds  —  that  of  the  ancients. 
In  reality,  what  has  been  mentioned  as  the  outcome  of  the 
revival  of  the  scientific  works  of  Aristotle  and  of  the  early 
Greek  philosophers,  while  it  was  but  one  aspect  of  the  world 
of  ancient  thought,  led  to  this  discovery  of  the  world  of 
nature.  Through  the  beliefs  and  methods  of  the  Greeks,  the 
Renaissance  students  were  led  to  direct  observation  and  ex- 
perimentation with  natural  phenomena,  and  through  that  to 
geographical  discovery  and  exploration  both  by  land  and  sea, 
and  to  those  astronomical  discoveries  that  were  to  become 
the  basis  of  modern  scientific  thought.  Thus  this  aspect  of 
Renaissance  thought  led  in  time  to  a  modification  of  all 
aspects  of  thought,  and  connects  directly  with  the  work  of 
Bacon  and  Descartes  in  the  seventeenth  century  and  with  the 
physical  and  biological  investigations  of  modern  science.  The 
combination  of  the  first  and  second  of  these  great  world  dis- 
coveries, the  world  portrayed  in  classical  literature  and  the 
world  revealed  by  introspective  analysis  of  the  emotional  life, 
led  to  the  production  of  art  and  literature,  including  poetry, 
the  drama,  and  romance,  to  an  interest  in  new  motives  as 
revealed  in  history  and  in  contemporary  life,  and  conse- 
quently to  the  formulation  of  the  historical  and  social  sci- 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      357 

ences.  While  at  first  this  development  seems  to  be  through 
the  exclusion  of  the  previously  absorbing  religious  interest, 
yet  during  the  sixteenth  century  it  again  becomes  dominantly 
religious,  but  now  on  a  humanistic  rather  than  on  a  scholastic 
basis. 

While  all  of  these  changes  influenced  educational  ideals 
and  practices  and  are  operative  in  the  formation  of  all 
modern  conceptions  of  education,  a  full  presentation  of  their 
meaning  belongs  rather  to  the  history  of  the  human  intellect 
and  of  human  society  than  to  the  narrower  field  of  the  his- 
tory of  education.  Nevertheless,  a  brief  historical  sketch  of 
the  progress  of  the  Renaissance  is  desirable  as  a  basis  for  the 
discussion  of  the  strictly  educational  bearing  of  the  revival, 
since  no  great  historical  movement  has  ever  been  so  thor- 
oughly educational  in  its  character. 

The  transition  from  the  old  learning  to  the  new  was  not  an 
abrupt  one ;  the  clear  definition  of  the  new  spirit  came  about 
very  gradually.  Even  its  triumph  did  not  involve  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  old  spirit.  Both  in  educational  interests 
and  in  those  wider  ones  involving  the  human  intellect  and 
the  human  spirit,  old  methods  of  thought  as  well  as  old  ideas 
and  ideals  continued  active  for  many  centuries;  in  fact, 
they  have  persisted  even  to  the  present  day.  But  the  domi- 
nant thought,  that  which  gives  character  to  the  period,  soon 
came  to  be  that  aroused  by  the  new  knowledge. 

THE  RENAISSANCE  IN  ITALY.  — As  the  political,  reli- 
gious, and  intellectual  life  of  the  times  centered  in  Italy,  so 
also  did  the  Renaissance  movement.  The  period  was  the  latter 
half  of  the  fourteenth  and  all  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
causes  of  this  movement,  as  discoverable  in  the  influence  of 
the  universities  and  the  intensity  of  the  intellectual  activity 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  have  been  mentioned  previously. 
The  personal  connecting  link  is  found  in  Dante  (1264-1321), 
whose  partly  mediaeval,  partly  modern,  spirit  has  already 


358  History  of  Education 

been  noticed.  But  the  man  who  earned  the  title  of  "the  first 
modern  man"  was  Petrarch  (1304-1374).  He  it  was  who 
first  broke  completely  with  the  mediaeval,  who  devoted  him- 
self to  the  study  of  the  classics  and  to  a  reproduction  of  the 
classical  spirit  in  literature,  '~»oth  in  the  vernacular  and  in 
classical  Latin,  with  such  a  passion  as  soon  to  carry  with  him 
a  great  following  of  the  leading  minds  of  Italy.  Petrarch 
was  the  first  to  choose  Cicero  as  a  master.  He  looked  upon 
Cicero  and  his  compeers  as  living  personages.  Much  of 
Petrarch's  epistolary  work,  the  earliest  embodiment  of  the 
new  spirit,  was  imaginary  correspondence  with  these  ancient 
authors.  So  vitally  did  he  seek  to  enter  into  their  spirit  that 
reciprocally  their  spirit  in  time  became  that  of  the  Renais- 
sance. Petrarch  himself  said  that  he  stood  between  two 
ages,  being  the  first  to  look  back  to  the  age  of  Augustine 
and  realize  all  that  had  been  lost,  and  the  first  to  point  out 
the  way  for  its  recovery. 

During  the  later  mediaeval  centuries  a  knowledge  of  the 
Latin  classics  was  not  an  unknown  thing,  for  the  manuscript 
copies  of  many  of  these  were  in  existence,  and  Vergil  ut 
least  was  quite  well  known.  But  there  was  little  apprecia- 
tion for  their  beauty  as  literature,  little  sympathy  with  the 
interests  of  the  classical  times,  and  little  toleration  of  the 
study  of  these  classics  to  the  detriment  of  the  study  of 
dialectic  based  upon  Aristotle,  the  study  of  the  Sentences 
of  Peter  the  Lombard,  and  of  the  patristic  and  scholastic 
literature  in  general.  Against  the  dominant  educational 
ideas  of  the  times,  against  scholasticism  and  Aristotelianism, 
Petrarch  strove  with  all  his  might.  With  his  genius  for 
leadership  and  his  power  of  stimulating  enthusiasm,  he  cre- 
ated a  general  interest  in  the  classics  in  direct  opposition  to 
the  ordinarily  accepted  interests  of  students,  of  institutions 
of  learning,  of  the  Church  and  of  Churchmen.  Petrarch  was 
not  alone  in  this;  his  significance  here  is  merely  as  a  repre 
sentative  of  a  movement.  But  he  holds  a  olace  in  the  history 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      359 

of  education  as  the  first  great  representative  of  a  new  type 
of  intellectual  life.  To-day,  when  we  can  readily  obtain  a 
knowledge  of  the  best  that  has  been  thought  and  done  with 
out  going  back  to  antiquity,  it  is  difficult  to  realize  the  im- 
portance of  this  work.  At  that  time  there  was  no  vernacular 
literature  to  speak  of,  and  the  human  interests  of  the  Greek 
and  Latin  literatures  had  been  replaced  by  the  narrow 
religious  and  ecclesiastical  interests  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
Consequently  there  is  no  parallel  between  the  importance 
of  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  in  recent  centuries  and  its 
importance  during  these  centuries  of  the  Renaissance  period. 

The  Work  of  Petrarch  and  his  confreres  possessed,  not  only 
this  negative  value  of  protest  against  the  restrictive  mediae- 
valism,  the  perfectly  adjusted  world  of  thought  and  action, 
but  it  possessed  also  the  positive  merit  of  emphasizing  the 
value  of  the  opportunities  of  this  life  for  self-development 
through  the  greatest  variety  of  experiences  and  efforts 
wholly  forbidden  by  the  asceticism  and  self-abnegation  of  the 
mediaeval  spirit.  His  writings  are  the  first  in  modern  times  to 
reveal  the  human  soul  in  the  whole  gamut  of  passions,  suffer- 
ings, and  aspirations..  Here  is  first  found  that  attitude  of  self- 
analysis  that  becomes  a  characteristic  note  in  modern  literature 
and  thought. 

As  a  reaction  against  the  all-controlling,  "other  worldli- 
ness  "  of  the  Middle  Ages,  one  aspect  of  this  new  motive  was 
the  substitution  of  the  idea  of  a  worldly  immortality  which 
later  gave  rise  to  that  recrudescence  of  paganism  character 
istic  of  the  Italian  Renaissance.  In  the  narrower  sense  none 
of  Petrarch's  writings  are  educational.  The  more  important 
of  them  are  his  Sonnets  in  the  vernacular,  characterized  by 
their  introspective  emotionalism,  which  give  them  an  impor- 
tant place  in  the  history  of  modern  literature ;  his  Lives  of 
Ancient  Men,  wherein  both  the  Greeks  and  Romans  become 
alive  to  modern  men  ;  and  his  very  numerous  Letters,  wherein 
ar^  revealed  the  development  and  the  dissemination  of  the 


360  History  of  Education 

Renaissance  spirit.  It  is  not  the  content  of  these  works  tha: 
gives  him  a  place  in  the  history  of  education,  but  this  new 
conception  of  life  and  the  new  spirit  and  content  of  educa- 
tion. This  second  great  characteristic  of  Petrarch  also  has 
more  than  individual  significance.  As  in  its  beginning,  so 
throughout  its  course,  the  Renaissance  in  Italy  remained 
domirantly  personal  and  individual.  Its  spirit  was  that  of  the 
development  and  culture  of  the  individual,  and  had  little  or 
no  interest  in  the  improvement  of  society  in  general.  It  did 
not  seek  to  reform  the  morals  of  the  time  or  to  remove  the 
formalism  of  the  religious  lifr  or  the  narrowness  of  the  politi- 
cal and  institutional  life. 

Petrarch  was  an  indefatigable  student,  and  possessed  the 
power  as  a  scholar  of  stimulating  others.  Though  he  had 
many  co-laborers  and  many  successors,  to  him  is  directly  due 
the  revival  of  classical  Latin. 

Co-laborers  of  Petrarch.  —  Among  the  chief  of  these  were 
Boccaccio  (1313-1375),  especially  notable  in  literature,  and 
Barzizza  (1370-1431),  especially  notable  for  scholarship. 
These,  with  Petrarch,  led  in  the  movement  for  the  recovery 
of  the  classical  text,  for  the  multiplication  of  these  manuscripts, 
and  for  the  founding  of  libraries.  In  one  remaining  aspect 
of  the  educational  Renaissance — the  recovery  of  the  Greek 
language  —  Petrarch  had  little  part.  In  the  Hebrew  the 
Italians  had  no  interest,  but  to  them  was  due  the  restoration 
of  the  Greek.  Even  among  the  Byzantine  Greeks  of  the 
East  a  knowledge  of  the  classical  Greek  was  a  rare  thing ; 
and  while  many  travelers  and  some  students  had  come  in 
contact  with  the  contemporary  Greeks  and  a  few  of  the 
Byzantians  professed  to  teach  Greek  in  Italy,  the  first  real 
teacher  of  the  classical  Greek  in  the  Western  world  for  many 
centuries  was  Manuel  Chrysoloras  (d.  1415).  From  1397  to 
1400  Chrysoloras  lectured  at  the  University  of  Florence  and 
.ater  at  other  cities  of  Italy.  Many  flocked  to  his  tuition  ; 
other  Greek  teachers  followed  his  example  ;  Greek  manu 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      361 

scripts  were  brought  over  in  great  numbers ;  Greek  grammars 
were  written  for  Latin  students  ;  and  shortly  there  was  given 
to  the  Western  world  a  new  language  and  a  whole  literature, 
of  infinitely  greater  wealth  than  that  possessed,  whether  of 
classical  Latin,  of  patristic  and  mediaeval  Latin,  or  of  the 
vernacular. 

By  the  time  the  Renaissance  movement  had  reached  its 
zenith  in  Italy  and  had  begun  to  pass  north  of  the  Alps,  the 
classical  Latin  and  Greek  languages  had  been  recovered  ; 
the  largest  part  of  the  literature  of  these  languages  that  we 
now  possess  had  been  brought  to  light,  libraries  had  been 
founded,  and  the  new  spirit  as  well  as  the  new  knowledge 
had  been  firmly  established. 

MODIFIED  CHARACTER  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE  IN 
NORTH  EUROPE. —  The  later  Renaissance  period,  that  of 
the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  the  greater  part 
of  the  sixteenth,  was  modified  in  two  respects.  By  this  time 
the  movement  had  run  its  course  in  Italy  and  had  begun  to 
decline  into  a  formalism  little  superior  to  the  old ;  while,  in 
the  second  place,  the  movement  shifted  north  of  the  Alps  and, 
though  first  welcomed  by  the  French,  received  its  greatest 
development  among  the  Teutonic  peoples.  In  the  South  the 
new  learning  tended  to  lose  its  wide  interest  in  nature  and  in 
life,  as  well  as  the  intensity  of  its  belief  in  personal  develop- 
ment, and  to  concentrate  in  the  mere  formal  study  of  litera- 
ture, until,  on  the  educational  side,  it  degenerated  into  that  type 
later  to  be  mentioned  as  "  Ciceronianism."  With  the  transfer 
to  the  North  the  change  in  spirit  was  even  more  significant ; 
in  one  respect  it  was  a  narrowing,  in  another  it  was  a  broaden- 
ing tendency.  The  early  movement  in  the  South  was  a  most 
pronounced  emphasis  on  individualism.  The  new  learning 
was  esteemed  chiefly  as  a  means  of  self-culture ;  through  it 
individual  opinion  was  to  find  freedom,  individual  appreciation 
to  find  means  of  expression,  individual  judgment  to  find  scope 


362  History  of  Education 

for  exercise.  The  Italian  Renaissance  concentrated  itself  in 
the  recovery  of  the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome  as  a  means 
to  these  ends,  since  personality  had  never  been  so  exalted  as 
during  the  periods  when  these  literatures  were  produced,  or 
at  least  had  nowhere  else  found  such  adequate  expression. 
This  the  Northern  nations  did  not  get ;  among  them  the 
aesthetic  element  of  the  movement  even  as  regards  literature 
was  comparatively  undeveloped.  There  was  not  the  broad 
interest  in  life,  in  its  possibilities  and  in  its  opportunities  for 
personal  development ;  in  its  pleasures  and  its  legitimate  inter- 
ests aside  from  the  practical,  that  is,  religious  and  social 
ones ;  little  or  none  of  that  interest  in  the  investigation  of 
nature  and  of  life  in  the  past  that  so  characterized  the  ear- 
lier period.  Erasmus,  who  represents  the  later  movement, 
as  Petrarch  did  the  earlier,  had  none  of  these.  Since  the 
archaeological,  aesthetic,  philosophical  interest  of  the  early 
movement  were  for  the  most  part  expressions  of  self-culture, 
as  well  as  means  of  personal  development,  there  was  compara- 
tively slight  attention  to  them. 

While  in  the  North  the  movement  was  a  narrower  one  so 
far  as  it  relates  to  personal  development,  it  was  infinitely 
broader  in  another  respect,  —  in  that  it  resulted  in  social  reform 
and  improvement.  In  the  South  the  movement  was  aristo- 
cratic;  in  the  North,  until  late  in  the  sixteenth  century,  it 
was  democratic.  All  of  the  early  leaders  were  social  or 
religious  reformers,  and  with  them  the  Renaissance  movement 
fused  with  the  Reformation  movement.  With  Erasmus  the 
interests  that  determined  his  career  in  life,  the  side  of  every 
controversy  that  he  chose,  and  the  selection  of  classics  to  be 
edited  or  translated  were  all  determined  by  one  aim.  This 
was  to  remove  the  common  ignorance,  to  root  out  the  gross 
evils  of  Church  and  State,  to  condemn  the  selfishness,  greed, 
and  hypocrisy  of  all  who  used  the  cloak  of  their  office,  whether 
in  government,  in  university,  in  monastery,  or  in  Church,  to 
prey  upon  the  ignorance  and  superstition  of  those  committed 
to  their  care. 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      363 

As  another  example  of  this  Teutonic  tendency,  take  Jacob 
Wimpfeling,  the  great  humanistic  educator  of  Roman  Catholic 
Germany.  He  asks,  "  Of  what  use  are  all  the  books  in  the 
world,  the  most  learned  writings,  the  most  profound  research, 
if  they  only  minister  to  the  vainglory  of  their  authors,  and 
do  not,  or  cannot,  advance  the  good  of  mankind  ?  Such  bar- 
ren, useless,  injurious  learning  as  proceeds  from  pride  and 
egotism  serves  to  darken  understanding  and  to  foster  all  evil 
passions  and  inclinations  ;  and  if  these  govern  the  mind  of  an 
author,  his  works  cannot  possibly  be  good  in  their  influence." 
All  of  Wimpheling's  work  was  founded  on  the  basal  principle 
that  "  the  better  education  of  the  young  is  the  foundation  of 
all  true  reform,  ecclesiastical,  national,  and  domestic."  Thus 
it  was  with  most  of  the  humanists  of  North  Europe.  All  such 
evils  were  based  upon  ignorance ;  hence  the  Renaissance  in 
the  North  became  more  emphatically  educational  from  this 
general  social  point  of  view,  yet  narrower  so  far  as  concerned 
the  elements  entering  into  the  ideal  of  personal  character. 
The  broader  interests  of  the  earlier  period  had  led  to  a  freedom 
of  opinion  and  to  a  license  in  action  that  was  quite  foreign  to  the 
character  and  piety  of  the  German  people.  In  the  north  action 
led  to  an  emphasis  on  the  moral  and  religious  bearing  of  the 
new  learning,  and  to  a  fusion  with  the  Reformation  cause. 
Whether  necessary  or  not,  the  outcome  certainly  was  a  restric- 
tion of  the  educational  ideal  in  scope,  and  a  limiting  of  the 
function  of  individual  judgment  and  of  the  right  of  personal 
development  to  religious  rather  than  intellectual  lines,  and  to 
the  elimination  for  the  vast  majority  of  people  of  important 
elements  of  this  ideal  as  formulated  in  the  earlier  period.  This 
cannot  be  said  to  be  true  of  all  of  the  leaders  —  of  Erasmus, 
for  example;  but  Erasmus  was  fighting  all  his  life,  not  only 
against  the  abuses  in  Church  and  State  based  on  ignorance 
and  selfishness,  but  also  against  this  narrowing  tendency  of 
the  new  learning,  in  literature,  in  education,  in  religion,  in 
interest  in  nature,  and  in  the  bearing  of  learning  on  the  broad, 


364  History  of  Education 

practical  aspects  of  life.  The  intellectual  spirit,  which  was  the 
essential  feature  of  the  Renaissance,  prevailed  largely  during 
the  first  century  of  the  movement  in  the  North.  But  after 
the  time  of  Erasmus  most  of  this  spirit  of  criticism  of  author- 
ity, of  toleration  of  personal  opinion,  of  investigation  and  re- 
search into  the  ideas  of  the  ancients  and  into  the  rationality 
of  beliefs  and  practices,  of  interest  in  the  processes  of  nature, — 
all  gave  place  to  an  intellectual  formalism  scarcely  more  tol- 
erant than  the  mediaeval.  By  the  time  this  formalism  fully 
established  itself,  the  Renaissance  period  as  usually  delimited 
was  passed.  But  so  far  as  schools  were  concerned,  the  old 
scholastic  spirit  had  scarcely  given  way  to  the  new  before  that 
was  replaced  by  the  new  formalism,  hardly  more  tolerant 
than  the  old.  The  great  difference  was  that  educational 
formalism  was  now  founded  on  literary  and  linguistic  instead 
of  upon  logical  and  dialectic  studies. 

X 

TEE  EDUCATIONAL  MEANING  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE 

(a)  The  Revival  of  the  Idea  of  the  Liberal  Education.  —  The 
devotion  to  the  study  of  the  classical  literatures  became  not 
only  the  chief  outward  manifestation  of  the  Renaissance 
spirit,  but  these  literatures  also  furnished  the  chief  means  in 
developing  the  new  life.  The  new  aspirations  for  the  devel- 
opment of  free  moral  personality,  defined  on  both  the  intel- 
lectual and  the  emotional  sides  as  well,  found  little  basis  in 
the  immediate  past  and  little  encouragement  in  the  imme- 
diate present;  but  the  life  of  the  ancients  as  portrayed  in 
their  literature  furnished  both.  The  Renaissance  was  not  a 
direct  attempt  to  reestablish  the  ideas  and  the  life  of  the 
ancients,  but  in  many  respects  it  became  an  imitation, 
because  the  formulation  of  certain  aspects  of  life  by  the 
ancients  could  not  be  improved  upon,  and  some  could  not 
well  be  modified  to  conform  to  the  needs  of  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries  by  those  of  so  meager  experience  and 
outlook  as  had  the  men  of  that  time.  A  most  important 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      365 

phase  of  this  revival  was  the  restoration  of  the  idea  of  the 
liberal  education  as  formulated  by  the  Greeks  and  adapted 
to  the  Romans  by  Cicero,  Quintilian,  Tacitus,  and  others. 
Educationally,  the  Renaissance  often  seems  to  have  been 
merely  a  devotion  to  the  study  of  the  literary  classics  and  to 
the  linguistic  study  necessary  as  a  preparation ;  but  this  is 
not  the  heart  of  the  matter,  at  least  during  the  earlier  period. 
The  great  desire  was  for  a  new  life  and,  in  this  respect,  for 
a  new  education,  hostile  to  the  old,  dogmatic,  restrictive, 
pedantic  scheme  of  scholasticism.  This  ideal  revealed  itself 
in  the  liberal  education  as  formulated  by  the  ancients,  though 
its  immediate  application  was  an  individualistic  one  rather 
than  one  giving  its  social  implications. 

Both  the  earlier  and  the  later  Renaissance  periods  were 
quite  prolific  in  treatises  on  education ;  those  of  the  earlier 
period,  not  only  revive  the  liberal  idea,  but  even  define  educa- 
tion in  the  same  terms  as  those  used  by  Plato,  by  Aristotle, 
or  by  Quintilian.  The  aim  of  education  is  always  conceived 
as  that  of  producing  the  perfect  man  fitted  for  participation 
in  the  activities  of  the  dominant  social  institutions.  The 
ideal,  while  individualistic,  is  as  clearly  distinguished  from 
the  narrow  practical  aim  of  individual  success  as  a  citizen, 
and  from  the  other  extreme  of  a  life  of  isolation  spent  in 
mere  contemplation  of  the  good  as  it  is  from  the  prevailing 
formal  disciplinary  education  of  the  scholastics.  The  edu- 
cated men  of  the  past  who  were  held  up  as  ideals  were 
Demosthenes,  Aristotle,  Caesar,  Pliny,  and  above  all  Cicero. 

Formulation  of  the  Aim.  —  Some  of  the  formulations  of  the 
purpose  of  education  By  these  early  educators  are  of  great 
interest  and  value.  Paulus  Vergerius  (1349-1420),  a  pro- 
fessor in  the  University  of  Padua,  wrote  a  treatise  on  educa- 
tion about  1374  which  was  widely  influential  and  even  widely 
used  as  a  texFm  schools,  in  which  he  formulated  the  concep- 
tion of  education  as  follows :  "  We  call  those  studies  liberal 
which  are  worthy  of  a  free  man ;  those  studies  by  which  wf 


366  History  of  Education 

attain  and  practice  virtue  and  wisdom ;  that  education  which 
calls  forth,  trains,  and  develops  those  highest  gifts  of  body 
and  of  mind,  which  ennoble  men  and  which  are  rightly  judged 
to  rank  next  in  dignity  to  virtue  only."  To  distinguish  it 
from  a  purely  practical  education,  which,  owing  to  the 
revived  economic  interests  of  the  times,  was  competing  with 
the  liberal  idea  in  the  struggle  with  the  dominant  scholasti- 
cism, he  adds:  "  For  to  the  vulgar  temper,  gain  and  pleasure 
are  the  one  aim  of  existence ;  to  a  lofty  nature,  moral  worth 
and  fame."  The  major  part  of  all  of  these  numerous  treatises 
on  education  is  naturally  devoted  to  a  discussion  of  the  sub« 
ject-matter  and  the  method  of  education,  since  the  aim  or 
purpose  can  usually  be  indicated  in  a  word  or  two  from  Plato 
or  Cicero,  while  it  is  in  respect  to  content  and  method  that 
the  new  education  presented  a  visible  contrast  with  the  old. 
It  has  been  noticed,  previously,  that  while  Plato  defined  the 
aim  of  education  in  terms  of  knowledge  and  Cicero  in  terms 
of  eloquence,  meaning  knowledge  of  content  and  of  form  of 
literature,  much  more  was  indicated  by  these  terms  than  is 
now  connoted.  Both  terms  which  now  would  indicate  for 
the  most  part  the  receptive  or  even  formal  side  of  educa- 
tion then  included  the  expression  side  as  well.  During  the 
early  Renaissance  period  this  expression  side  was  even  wider 
than  that  indicated  by  efficiency  in  writing  or  speaking,  since 
at  that  time  these  powers  stood  for  that  effective  participa- 
tion in  the  affairs  of  the  times  that  is  now  represented  by  the 
differentiated  activities  of  all  of  our  learned  professions  and 
by  the  public  press.  This  is  the  meaning  contained  in  the 
following  paragraph  from  the  essay  of  Lionardo  D'Arezzo  on 
the  study  of  literature,  written  about  1477  to  a  noble  lady. 
Even  to  women,  this  study  of  literature  is  to  mean  more  than 
mere  acquaintance  with  or  knowledge  of  classical  writings. 

"  That  high  standard  of  education  to  which  I  referred  at  the 
outset"  (illustrated  by  reference   to   a    number   of    learned 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      367 

women,  who  had  participated  in  public  affairs,  such  as 
Cornelia,  Sappho,  Aspasia)  "  is  only  reached  by  one  who 
has  seen  many  things  and  read  much.  Poet,  Orator,  Histo- 
rian, and  the  rest,  all  must  be  studied,  each  must  contribute 
a  share.  This  learning  thus  becomes  full,  ready,  varied,  and 
elegant,  available  for  action  or  for  discourse  in  all  subjects. 
But  to  enable  us  to  make  effectual  use  of  what  we  know,  we 
must  add  to  our  knowledge  the  power  of  expression.  These 
two  sides  of  learning,  indeed,  should  not  be  separated ;  they 
afford  mutual  aid  and  distinction.  Proficiency  in  literary 
form,  not  accompanied  by  broad  acquaintance  with  facts  and 
truths,  is  a  barren  attainment;  whilst  information,  however 
vast,  which  lacks  all  grace  of  expression,  would  seem  to  be 
put  under  a  bushel  or  partly  thrown  away.  Indeed,  one  may 
fairly  ask  what  advantage  it  is  to  possess  profound  and 
varied  learning  if  one  cannot  convey  it  in  language  worthy 
of  the  subject.  Where,  however,  this  double  capacity  exists, 
—  breadth  of  learning  and  grace  of  style,  —  we  allow  the  high- 
est title  to  distinction  and  to  abiding  fame." 

The  same  idea  clothed  in  different  words,  probably  more 
acceptable  to  present  educational  thought,  is  given  by  ^Eneas 
Sylvius,  later  Pope  Pius  II,  in  his  tractate  on  The  Liberal 
Education,  published  1475,  where  he  sums  up  the  aim  of 
such  study  in  terms  of  character,  "  our  one  sure  possession." 
But  character  is  to  be  obtained  through  study  of  philosophy, 
letters,  and  by  religious  nurture.  "  Eloquence  is  a  prime 
accomplishment  in  one  immersed  in  affairs."  We  must  learn 
to  express  ourselves  with  distinction,  with  style,  and  in  a 
manner  worthy  of  our  subject.  Consequently  "Grammar,  it 
is  allowed,  is  the  portal  to  all  knowledge  whatever,"  and 
therewith  he  outlines  the  usual  literary  education  of  the 
Renaissance  leaders. 

The  New  Elements  in  Education.  —  One  very  important 
aspect  of  the  Renaissance  education,  but  not  to  be  conveyed 
in  the  words  of  the  leaders  without  very  extended  quotation, 
is  the  inclusion  in  the  ideal  and  practice  of  education  of 
elements  common  to  the  classical  period,  but  altogether 


368  History  of  Education 

excluded  from  the  mediaeval.  The  first  of  these  is  the  physi 
cal  element.  In  quite  a  number  of  these  treatises,  there  is 
elaborate  presentation  of  the  reasons  for  physical  training 
and  of  the  methods  and  forms  of  exercise  appropriate 
thereto. 

"  It  will  thus  be  an  essential  part  of  your  education  that 
you  be  early  taught  the  use  of  the  bow,  of  the  string,  and  of 
the  spear ;  that  you  drive,  ride,  leap,  swim.  These  are  honor- 
able accomplishments,  and  therefore  not  unworthy  of  the 
educator's  care.  Games,  too,  should  be  encouraged  for  young 
children, —  the  ball,  the  hoop, — but  these  must  not  be  rough 
and  coarse,  but  have  in  them  an  object  of  skill.  Such  relaxa- 
tions should  form  an  integral  part  of  each  day's  occupation, 
if  learning  is  not  to  be  made  an  object  of  disgust." 

This  is  from  the  same  source  last  quoted,  and  though 
written  for  a  prince,  expresses  an  ideal  common  to  most  of 
these  expositors.  Similarly,  questions  of  diet  and  of  hygiene 
are  also  included.  This  emphasis  was  quite  impossible  in  the 
preceding  period,  aside  from  the  chivalric  education,  and,  it 
must  be  confessed,  again  soon  becomes  almost  as  foreign. 
Accompanying  this  emphasis  upon  the  physical  element  is  a 
similar  one  upon  matters  of  conduct  and  behavior.  In  these 
respects  the  early  Renaissance  education  represents  a  fusion 
of  the  chivalric-  education  and  the  literary  education  with  a 
result  much  superior  to  that  which  was  obtained  in  the  pre- 
ceding or  succeeding  ages.  These,  along  with  the  idea  that 
literary  training  should  not  be  of  that  contemplative  character 
that  would  lead  to  lack  of  interest  and  want  of  power  in  prac- 
tical life,  are  aspects  of  their  thought  of  education  as  a  train, 
ing  in  effective  citizenship.  The  production  of  this  practical 
judgment  in  everyday  affairs  was  one  of  the  chief  purposes 
of  the  new  education,  however  literary  it  might  be.  Hence 
the  moral  element  receives  a  new  emphasis,  different  from 
that  of  the  mediaeval  spirit,  where  the  moral  was  fused  with  or 
even  limited  to  the  religious  and  theological  element.  It  was 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      369 

also  wholly  distinct  from  and  superior  to  that  characteristic 
feature  of  the  outcome  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy,  where 
there  was  a  tendency  toward  the  elimination  of  the  moral 
element  as  developed  by  Christianity  in  favor  of  the  license 
prevailing  during  the  later  periods  of  Graeco-Roman  life  and 
expressed  so  freely  in  their  literature.  While  many  Renais- 
sance leaders  of  State,  of  Church,  and  of  literature  exerted 
such  an  influence  toward  lowering  of  moral  standards,  the 
consensus  of  the  influence  of  educational  writings  and  of 
schools  is  the  reverse.  This  emphasis  upon  the  moral  ele- 
ment in  education  had  less  of  a  formal  nature  than  that  of 
the  previous  scholastic  and  monastic  education  and  more 
of  an  immediate  practical  bearing  on  life  than  that  previously 
fostered  by  the  Church. 

One  further  element  characteristic  of  the  new  education 
was  the  aesthetic.  Wholly  eliminated  from  the  mediaeval 
education,  owing  to  the  dominance  of  ascetic  ideas,  it  was 
reintroduced  as  the  very  breath  of  life  of  the  new  move- 
ment. It  became  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  the 
change  from  the  old  to  the  new.  It  found  chief  expression 
in  the  study  of  literature  and  became  a  dominant  feature  of 
the  work  of  the  schools  under  the  titles  of  Grammar  and 
Rhetoric.  This  application  of  the  importance  of  the  manner 
of  expression,  related  not  only  to  language  but  also  to  various 
other  forms  of  thought,  expression,  and,  as  previously  noted, 
to  conduct  and  behavior. 

To  summarize  :  The  great  educational  contribution  of  the 
Renaissance  was  the  recovery  or  reformulation  of  the  concep- 
tion of  the  liberal  education,  which  included  the  physical,  the 
aesthetic,  the  moral,  the  literary  and  social,  as  well  as  the 
abstract  literary,  theological,  and  ecclesiastical  elements. 
This  education  aimed  at  the  development  of  the  free  man 
possessing  individuality  of  his  own,  and  power  of  efficient 
participation  in  everyday  life,  based  upon-a  wide  knowledge 
of  life  in  the  past  and  an  appreciation  of  opportunities  of  life 

2B 


370  History  of  Education 

in  the  present.  At  its  best  it  demanded  that  such  a  man 
should  possess,  as  the  evidence  of  his  education,  the  moral 
purpose  to  make  his  knowledge  and  power  of  service  in  the 
needs  of  his  country  and  the  life  of  his  fellow-men.  It  must 
be  admitted,  however,  that  this  last  feature  was  due  rather  to 
the  fact  that  most  of  these  educational  treatises  were  written 
as  a  guide  for  the  bringing  up  of  children  of  the  nobility,  who 
were  prospective  rulers  of  petty  principalities,  and  hence  that 
this  emphasis  upon  the  practical  and  moral  element  was  not 
so  much  a  social  one  as  one  from  the  point  of  view  of  their 
own  individual  activities  and  opportunities. 

(6)  The  Narrow  Humanistic  Education.  —  The  content  of 
this  new  education,  consisting  primarily  of  the  languages  and 
classical  literatures  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  came  to  be 
indicated  during  this  period  by  the  term  humanities.  One 
of  these  earlier  writers,  Battista  Guarino,  summing  up  his  trea- 
tise ( 1459)  on  this  new  education,  writes  as  follows  :  "  Learning 
and  training  in  Virtue  are  peculiar  to  man  :  therefore  our  fore- 
fathers called  them  '  Humanitas,'  the  pursuits,  the  activities, 
proper  to  mankind.  And  no  branch  of  knowledge  embraces 
•so  wide  a  range  of  subjects  as  that  learning  which  I  have 
flow  attempted  to  describe."  This  passage  hints  at  the  change 
\vhich  soon  came  to  pass  with  tremendous  results  for  educa- 
tion. The  interest  in  the  liberal  education  described  in  the 
last  section  was  in  "the  pursuits,  the  activities,  proper  to 
mankind,"  and  the  literature  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  was 
merely  a  means  to  an  understanding  of  these.  Soon,  how- 
ever,—  that  is,  by  the  sixteenth  century, — that  which  was 
at  first  merely  a  means  came  to  be  considered  as  an 
end  in  itself,  and  the  term  humanities  came  to  indicate  the 
languages  and  literature  of  the  ancients.  Consequently  the 
aim  of  education  was  thought  of  in  terms  of  language  and 
literature  instead  of  in  terms  of  life,  and  educational  effort 
was  directed  toward  the  mastery  of  this  literature.  That 
portion  of  these  literatures  which  was  superior  from  the 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      371 

formal  standpoint  only  became  the  center  of  educational 
effort,  and  consequently  the  formal  instead  of  the  content  or 
literary  side  of  these  writings  became  of  greater  importance. 
This  change,  though  a  gradual  one,  resulted  in  the  formulation 
of  a  type  of  education  distinct  from  and  inferior  to  this  re- 
vival of  the  liberal  education  out  of  which  it  grew.  This 
newer  conception  was  one  of  far  wider  application  and  one 
that  has  persisted  well  into  modern  times.  As  in  popular 
usage  the  term  humanities  was  narrowed  to  indicate  merely 
the  languages  and  literatures  of  the  two  peoples,  so  the  term 
humanistic  was  narrowed  to  indicate  the  type  of  education 
corresponding  to  it.  Through  this  usage,  not  quite  exact  for 
the  term  contains  the  original  broader  significance  as  well,  we 
are  forced  to  adopt,  as  following  popular  practice,  the  term 
humanistic  education^  to  indicate  the  narrow  linguistic  edu- 
cation that  dominated  European  schools  from  the  sixteenth 
to  the  middle  nineteenth  century.  Naturally,  considerable 
variation  existed  in  the  character  of  the  type,  and  yet  it  was 
always  much  more  restricted  than  the  earlier  Renaissance 
education. 

Elimination  of  Elements  from  the  Conception  of  Education.  — 
At  its  best  the  narrow  humanistic  education  gave  little  place 
to  the  physical,  and  to  the  societary  or  institutional  elements ; 
it  had  little  thought  of  broad  preparation  for  social  activity 
through  familiarity  with  the  life  of  the  ancients  ;  it  gave  no 
place  to  the  study  of  nature  or  of  society  (history)  and,  at 
first,  little  even  to  mathematics,  a  study  which  later  through 
its  formal  value  conquered  a  definite  place  in  this  scheme. 
The  individualism  of  this  education  was  not  so  much  a  train- 
ing in  the  exercise  of  personal  judgment  and  of  personal 
taste  and  discrimination,  as  it  was  a  preparation  for  a  suc- 
cessful career  from  the  purely  personal  point  of  view  in  the 
formal  life  of  the  times.  This  end  was  gained  through  an 
education  so  formal  and  stereotyped  that  in  time  it  elimi- 
nated most  of  those  choicer  results  of  the  liberal  form  of  the 


372  History  of  Education 

humanistic  education.  The  only  phase  of  the  aesthetic  element 
preserved  was  the  study  of  rhetoric.  Education  again  became 
reduced  to  the  work  of  the  school  and  that  work  to  the  most 
formal  character,  relating  solely  to  the  study  of  language  and 
literature.  Since  the  child  began  immediately  with  the  study 
of  a  synthetic  language  through  the  mastery  of  grammatical 
constructions,  and  since  few  children  untrained  have  great 
power  of  literary  appreciation  or  of  acquisition,  the  work  of 
schooling  must  be  prolonged  for  years  in  its  attention  to 
the  merely  structural  side  of  language.  Even  the  literary 
appreciation  could  be  no  general  attainment,  so  that  fqr_the_ 
rank  and  file  of  children  educational  work  became  a  drill  of 
the  most  formal  and  the  most  laborious  character.  In  the 
universities  the  same  tendencies  prevailed  that  controlled  in 
the  lower  schools.  By  the  seventeenth  century  the  study  of 
the  humanities  was  little  less  formal  and  profitless  than  had 
been  the  narrow  routine  of  scholastic  discussion  of  the  four- 
teenth. Cicero  now  had  become  master  in  place  of  the 
dethroned  Aristotle. 

Ciceronianistn.  —  At  its  worst  this  humanistic  education 
became  almost  inconceivably  narrow,  and  boldly  asserted 
itself  even  as  early  as  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century 
under  the  name  of  Ciceronianism.  The  Ciceronians,  arguing 
that  the  aim  of  education  was  to  impart  a  perfect  Latin  style 
and  that  Cicero  was  the  admitted  master  of  that  style, 
held  that  all  work  in  the  school  should  be  confined  to  the 
study  of  the  writings  of  Cicero  or  of  his  imitators,  that  all 
conversation  and  all  writing  should  be  carried  on  in  Cicero- 
nian phrase,  and,  finally,  in  the  words  of  the  Ciceronian  contro- 
versialist, "they  would  discard  all  subjects  that  do  not  admit  of 
being  discussed  in  Cicero's  recorded  words."  Against  these, 
as  represented  by  numerous  Italian  and  French  humanists, 
Erasmus  carried  on  a  long  controversy  and  wrote  his  dia- 
logue on  The  Ciceronians.  In  this  satire  the  Ciceronian 
describes  his  ideal  education.  For  seven  years  the  cnild .  i«. 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      373 

to  read  Cicero  and  not  a  single  other  author,  until  he  has 
practically  committed  to  memory  the  whole  of  the  master's 
writing  and  has  acquired  a  Ciceronian  vocabulary.  ~~"Th 
order  to  accomplish  this,  huge  lexicons  of  words  are 
arranged ;  others  of  phrases ;  others  of  the  forms  of 
introductions  and  of  terminations  of  periods ;  others  of 
comparative  tables  of  the  various  uses  of  words.  Letters, 
declamations,  conversations  for  ordinary  usage,  orations,  are 
composed  with  infinite  pains,  in  the  effort  to  make  a  living 
language  of  that  which  at  the  time  of  its  creation  was  no 
more  the  spoken  language  than  was  that  of  Shakespeare 
during  the  sixteenth  century  or  of  Browning  in  the  later 
nineteenth.  However,  it  served  its  purpose  as  the  most 
extreme  formulation  of  the  purely  humanistic  disciplinary 
education  that  was  possible.  Erasmus  combats  this  from 
the  religious  as  well  as  from  the  educational  point  of  view, 
and  satirizes  it  in  this  summary  of  the  Christian  faith.  For 
the  following  brief  creed  :  — 

"  Jesus  Christ,  the  word  and  the  Son  of  the  Eternal  Father, 
according  to  prophecy,  came  into  the  world,  and,  having  be- 
come man,  voluntarily  surrendered  himself  to  death,  and 
so  redeemed  his  Church,  and  delivered  us  from  the  penalty 
of  the  law,  and  reconciled  us  to  God,  in  order  that,  justified 
by  grace  through  faith,  and  freed  from  the  bondage  of  sin, 
we  might  be  received  into  his  Church,  and  preserved  in  its 
communion,  might,  after  this  life,  be  admitted  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  ;  " 

the  Ciceronian  would  substitute 

"  The  interpreter  and  son  of  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus, 
our  Saviour  and  our  sovereign,  according  to  the  responses 
of  the  oracles,  came  down  to  the  earth  from  Olympus,  and, 
having  assumed  human  shape,  of  his  own  free  will  sacrificed 
himself  for  the  safety  of  the  republic  to  the  Dii  Manes,  and 
so  restored  it  to  its  lost  liberty,  and,  having  turned  aside  from 
us  the  angry  thunderbolts  of  Jupiter,  won  for  us  his  favor,  in 
order  that,  through  our  acknowledgment  of  his  bounty  hav- 


374  History  of  Education 

ing  recovered  our  innocence,  and  having  been  relieved  from 
the  servitude  of  flattery,  we  might  be  made  citizens  of  his 
republic,  and  having  sustained  our  parts  with  honor,  might, 
when  the  fates  should  summon  us  away  from  this  life,  enjoy 
supreme  felicity  in  the  friendship  of  the  immortal  Gods." 

While  Ciceronianism  will  be  recognized  as  an  extreme,  it 
will  be  seen  when  we  come  to  examine  the  types  of  schools 
dominant  during  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth 
centuries  that,  substituting  the  classical  writers  in  general 
for  their  one  master,  —  Cicero,  —  the  whole  tenor,  purpose 
and  method  of  these  schools  were  but  little  broader  than  the 
spirit  of  the  Ciceronians. 

Character  of  the  Narrow  Humanistic  Education.  —  The 
narrow  humanistic  education,  then,  posited  a  familiarity 
with  the  classical  literature,  or  with  that  portion  of  it  supe- 
rior from  a  rhetorical  point  of  view,  and  a  writing  and  speak- 
ing knowledge  of  Latin  as  the  sole  aim  of  education.  Con- 
sequently, the  content  of  education  and  the  subject-matter  of 
school  work  became  a  prolonged  drill  in  Latin  grammar;  a 
detailed  grammatical  and  rhetorical  study  of  selected  Latin 
texts,  especially  of  Cicero,  Ovid,  Terence,  with  less  attention 
to  Vergil  and  some  of  the  historians ;  with  some  study  of  por- 
tions of  the  Scriptures,  of  catechisms  and  creeds  in  Latin,  or 
of  the  Epistles  in  Greek.  This  command  of  Latin  was  per- 
fected through  frequent  exercise  in  declamation  and  the  pres- 
entation of  the  comedies  of  Plautus  and  Terence.  This  was 
supplemented  by  some  attention  to  Greek  and  possibly  to- 
elementary  mathematics,  and,  as  a  final  accomplishment,  a 
training  in  oratory  ;  that  is,  a  speaking  knowledge  of  Latin 
as  nearly  classical  or  Ciceronian  as  possible.  Methods  fol- 
lowed the  most  formal,  grammatical  lines,  with  no  appre- 
ciation of  the  child's  nature.  He  was  considered  to  be  a 
miniature  man  differing  from  the  adult  in  interests  and 
powers  of  mind  only  in  degree,  not  in  kind.  Consequently, 
the  child  on  coming  to  school  was  given  the  task  of  acquiring 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      375 

^foreign  language,  usually  before  he  had  acquired  the  ability 
to  read  or  wfite~1it5  own,  of  acquiring  this  through  a  formal 
study  of  grammar  and  of  rhetoric,  and  of  getting  this  formal 
knowledge  through  text-books  written  in  the  same  foreign 
tongue.  There  resulted  a  tremendous  emphasis  upon  the 
memorizing  powers  of  the  mind,  and  from  the  higher  formal 
training  a  keen  power  in  discrimination  of  forms.  All  this 
produced  a  dialectic  power  little  inferior  in  subtlety  and  "  hair- 
splitting "  acumen  to  that  of  the  Schoolmen.  The  disciplin- 
ary spirit  of  such  an  education  was  of  the  harshest,  because 
of  the  most  formal  character.  Corporal  punishment  fur- 
nished the  incentive  to  study  as  well  as  to  moral  conduct  — 
not  a  very  secure  basis  for  either.  This  education,  formal  in 
its  spirit  as  in  its  subject-matter,  accompanied  the  return  to 
the  emphasis  upon  the  formal  in  life,  seen  in  the  intellectual, 
the  political,  the  religious,  and  the  moral  life  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries. 

SOME  RENAISSANCE  EDUCATORS.  —  The  great  educa- 
tors of  the  Renaissance  movement  were  not  necessarily 
teachers,  though  many  of  them  were.  Such  leadership  was 
quite  as  frequently  exerted  through  general  treatises  on  the 
new  learning  or  even  by  a  development  or  stimulation  of 
appreciation  for  literature.  It  was  thus  quite  outside  the 
pale  of  university  or  school  that  the  early  Italian  leaders 
wrought.  Intrenched  as  the  old  learning  was  in  the  educa- 
tional institutions  of  every  grade,  the  new  learning  grew 
up  in  hostility  to  the  old,  though  in  time  it  found  a  place 
by  conquest  of  the  old.  In  any  educational  sketch  of  the 
Renaissance  some  of  the  more  prominent  of  those  who  reduced 
the  new  learning  to  the  methods  and  the  purposes  of  the 
schools  must  find  recognition. 

In  Italy  the  advanced  position  occupied  by  Petrarch, 
Boccaccio,  Barzizza,  ^Eneas  Sylvius,  and  other  humanists  has 
been  noticed  previously.  Many  of  these  early  humanists 


476  History  of  Education 

whether  attached  to  courts  or  to  universities,  possessed  but  a 
meager  income ;  consequently,  it  was  their  custom  to  supple- 
ment this  by  receiving  private  students  into  their  homes 
Through  such  work,  rather  than  through  university  lectures, 
these  men  reduced  the  new  learning  to  definite  educational 
procedure,  and  exercised  their  greatest  influence  on  their 
times  and  on  education.  Both  Barzizza  and  Chrysoloras, 
leaders  respectively  in  the  Latin  and  the  Greek  revival, 
conformed  to  this  custom,  and  Guarino  of  Verona  was  one 
of  the  most  successful  and  most  famous.  A  somewhat  more 
detailed  statement  of  the  work  of  one  of  these  must  answer 
for  that  of  all. 

Vittorino  da  Feltre  (1378-1446)  has  been  considered  as  the 
most  famous  of  all  these  Italian  educators,  both  by  his  own  and 
by  succeeding  generations.  Since  none  of  his  writings  have 
survived,  his  reputation  depends  on  the  influence  of  his 
pupils  and  the  traditions  of  his  school.  Vittorino  was  a 
product  of  the  earlier  generation  of  humanists,  and  had  been 
a  pupil,  or  at  least  had  been  associated  with  the  three  scholars 
just  mentioned.  He  taught  privately  at  Padua  and  Venice 
and  publicly  at  the  university  at  Padua  before  organizing 
the  school  which  was  to  be  the  means  of  his  great  influence. 
In  1428,  at  the  call  of  the  Prince  of  Mantua,  who  wished  to 
have  the  dignity  of  a  school  of  the  new  learning  at  his  court 
to  rival  that  of  the  neighboring  courts,  Vittorino  established 
at  Mantua  the  school  which  he  continued  until  his  death. 
This  school  represented  the  first  thorough  organization  of 
the  new  learning  for  school  purposes  as  distinct  from  uni 
versity  lectures.  The  master  here  gave  the  Greek  idea  of  a 
liberal  education  its  first  modern  embodiment,  and  taught  to 
the  youth  for  the  first  time  the  literature,  history,  and  civiliza- 
tion of  the  Romans  instead  of  the  mere  form  of  their  language. 
Later  ages  have  given  Vittorino  the  title  of  "  the  first  modern 
schoolmaster."  With  the  children  of  the  court  he,  in  time, 
associated  children  of  his  friends  and  of  the  neighboring 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      377 

nobility  until  the  school  occupied  an  entire  palace.  His  aim 
was  to  make  the  life  of  the  pupils  as  pleasant  and  active  as 
possible,  so  that  the  schoolhouse  was  made  as  termed,  "  The 
Pleasant  House."  Sport  and  games  were  joined  with  study, 
aesthetic  appreciation  was  cultivated,  and,  above  all,  moral 
and  Christian  influences  were  strongly  emphasized.  While 
the  curriculum  yet  retained  the  organization  of  the  seven 
liberal  arts,  literature  dominated  and  dialectic  and  gram- 
mar were  wholly  subordinated.  The  new  purpose  repre- 
sented a  yet  more  radical  change,  for  education  now  became 
a  direct  preparation  for  a  useful  and  balanced  life  in  leader- 
ship, in  State  or  Church,  a  citizenship  based  upon  a  knowledge 
of  and  sympathy  for  the  best  in  the  life  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.  Self-government  by  the  boys  of  the  school,  a  de- 
pendence upon  the  natural  interests  of  the  pupil,  use  of  the 
natural  activities  of  the  child  as  a  basis  for  much  of  the  work, 
and  a  strong  emphasis  upon  activities  and  upon  the  construc- 
tive side  of  the  work  as  furnishing  an  immediate  introduction 
into  a  useful  life,  were  some  of  the  features  exemplified  in 
this  school  at  Mantua. 

Early  German  Humanists.  —  Among  the  early  German 
humanists,  John  Wessel  (1420-1489),  Rudolph  Agricola 
(1443-1485),  Alexander  Hegius  (1420-1495),  John  Reuchlin 
(1455-1522),  and  Jacob  Wimpfeling  (1450-1528)  possess  the 
greatest  reputation  as  educators.  All  these  belonged  to  the 
order  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  or  had  some 
connection  with  their  schools.  Their  educational  importance 
consists  rather  in  what  they  did  for  the  introduction  of  the 
new  studies  and  the  new  spirit  among  German  students  than 
for  any  formulation  of  educational  doctrine  or  for  any  work 
in  the  organization  of  schools. 

Wimpfeling,  who  shared  with  Melanchthon  of  the  next 
generation  the  title  of  "  preceptor  of  Germany,"  united  in  his 
person  all  of  the  functions  performed  by  these  other  leaders. 
As  lecturer  and  rector  at  Heidelberg,  he  did  much  to  make 


378  History  of  Education 

that  university  the  center  of  humanistic  learning  in  the  west 
of  Germany ;  as  the  author  of  texts  and  an  adviser  in  the 
foundation  and  the  conduct  of  schools,  he  influenced  in  a 
practical  way  the  work  of  instruction ;  as  a  public  man, 
he  stood  for  the  importance  of  the  new  learning  to  the  cause 
of  social  and  religious  reform,  though  always  within  the 
Church  rather  than  by  a  break  with  it ;  as  a  writer  of  educa- 
tional  treatises,  he  did  much  to  formulate  the  doctrine  of  the 
new  education.  One  of  these  treatises,  A  Guide  to  the 
German  Youth  (1497),  is  the  earliest  systematic  treatise  on 
education  by  a  German.  In  his  exposition  of  the  curriculum 
and  method  of  education,  he  follows  the  broader  Renaissance 
traditions,  advocates  a  wide  selection  of  Greek  and  Latin 
texts  and  a  study  of  their  content  as  well  as  their  form. 
"  Let  study  be  for  the  quickening  of  independent  thought." 
But  his  exposition  does  not  stop  here.  He  discusses  the 
problems  of  school  life,  the  qualifications  of  teachers,  the 
relation  of  education  to  social  welfare,  and  similar  topics. 
Education  has  for  him  a  social  and  moral  aim.  "What 
profits  all  our  learning  if  our  characters  be  not  correspond- 
ingly noble,  all  of  our  industry  without  piety,  all  of  our  knowl- 
edge without  love  of  our  neighbor,  all  of  our  wisdom  without 
humility,  all  of  our  studying,  if  we  are  not  kind  and  charita- 
ble ? "  In  Youth  ( 1 500)  he  discusses  the  ethical  basis  of  edu- 
cation and  its  general  relation  to  religion. 

Erasmus. — The  most  famous  of  all  leaders  of  the  new 
learning,  the  one  whose  work  touched  every  phase  of  its 
educational  bearing,  the  one  whose  influence  was  confined 
to  no  country,  was  Desiderius  Erasmus  (Gerardus  Gerardi). 
Erasmus's  long  life  (1467-1536)  was  wholly  devoted  to  the 
furthering  of  the  new  learning,  not  so  much  as  a  form  of  self- 
culture,  but  rather  as  the  most  important  factor  in  the  much 
needed  moral,  religious,  educational,  and  social  reform  of 
the  time.  As  a  scholar  he  probably  does  not  take  rank  with 
some  others  of  the  critical  phase  of  the  Renaissance ;  but  he 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      379 

was  the  most  effective  humanist  and  educator  of  all  these 
centuries.  "  Of  all  scholars  who  have  popularized  scholarly 
literature,  Erasmus  was  the  most  brilliant,  the  man  whose 
aim  was  the  loftiest,  and  who  produced  the  most  lasting 
effect  over  the  widest  area,"  is  the  judgment  of  Professor 
Jebb.  It  was  in  this  broader  sense  that  Erasmus  was  an  edu 
cational  leader.  All  his  work  was  primarily  educational ;  — 
that  is,  designed  to  reform  the  many  abuses  in  society  that 
were  the  outgrowth  of  ignorance.  Let  us  see  how  this  was 
accomplished. 

Erasmus's  early  education  was  designed  to  fit  him  for  the 
monastic  life.  But  after  a  few  years  of  the  narrow  training 
of  the  typical  monastic  school,  he  was  put  at  his  ninth  year 
in  the  famous  church  school . at  Daventer.  Through  the  in- 
fluence especially  of  Hegius  and  Agricola,  he  became  imbued 
with  enthusiasm  for  the  new  learning.  Later,  in  Paris,  in 
Oxford,  and  in  Italy,  he  perfected  his  knowledge  of  languages 
and  of  the  literature  of  the  ancients.  Throughout  his  life  he 
remained  a  most  indefatigable  student,  and  often  denied  him- 
self the  barest  necessities  of  life  to  obtain  coveted  books. 
During  his  sojourn  at  Paris  and  at  Oxford,  he  was  a  teacher 
of  private  pupils  and  became  the  first  teacher  of  the  new 
learning  at  Cambridge.  For  many  years  he  led  the  life  of 
the  itinerant  scholar,  at  centers  of  learning  in  England, 
France,  the  Netherlands,  Switzerland  and  Italy.  For  twenty 
years  preceding  his  death  he  resided  at  Basle,  then  one  of  the 
chief  centers  of  printing.  Through  his  personal  correspond- 
ence and  his  personal  intercourse  with  students  and  scholars, 
he  did  even  more  of  the  work  of  instruction  than  through  his 
formal  connection  with  universities. 

But  far  more  than  through  either  of  these  activities  was 
accomplished  by  his  work  as  a  publicist,  for  few  men  have 
published  more,  and  no  man  has  seen  his  writings  so  widely 
disseminated  in  his  own  lifetime.  All  of  his  vast  labors  in 
this  line  were  determined  by  his  dominant  educational  or 


380  History  of  Education 

reform  motives.  He  possessed  little  of  the  archaeologies 
or  aesthetic  interests  of  many  humanists,  and  none  of  the 
dialectic  and  metaphysical  interests  of  the  scholar  of  the  old 
time.  Against  both  of  these  he  wrote,  chiefly  in  the  form  of 
satire.  This  satire  enters  into  many  of  his  works,  such  as 
The  Praise  of  Folly,  The  Colloquies,  The  Adages,  and  many 
of  his  briefer  dialogues,  such  as  the  one  on  The  Ciceronian^ 
previously  referred  to.  The  Adages  were  a  collection  of  the 
sayings  of  the  ancients,  professing  to  give  a  summary  of 
their  wisdom,  but  in  reality  selected  and  commented  upon 
so  as  to  serve  as  an  influence  reformatory  of  existing  abuses. 
The  Colloquies  discussed  in  dialogue  form  a  general  variety 
of  topics  so  as  to  reveal  the  current  abuses  in  Church,  State, 
family,  monastery,  and  university.  These  had  all  reduced 
themselves  to  ignorance  and  to  abuse  of  ecclesiastical  power, 
so  that  Erasmus  became  one  of  the  greatest  reformatory  forces 
—  certainly  next  in  importance  to  Luther  himself.  Far  differ- 
ent in  character,  but  dominated  by  the  same  motives,  was  his 
work  in  issuing  an  edition  of  the  New  Testament  in  Greek, 
the  first  ever  published  ;  and  also  a  Latin  translation  of  the 
same.  Later  he  edited  the  works  of  St.  Jerome,  some  of  the 
writings  of  the  Greek  fathers,  and  published  paraphrases  of 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament.  In  all  of  this  work  he 
combated  the  attitude  of  the  scholastic  expositors  of  the 
Bible,  based  merely  on  isolated  texts,  and  sought  to  bring 
about  a  more  correct  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  and  of  the 
attitude  of  the  Church  Fathers  as  contrasted  with  the  medi- 
aeval view.  His  whole  effort  was  concentrated  on  giving  to 
the  public  a  more  accurate  and  more  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  Scriptures. 

A  third  aspect  of  his  educational  labors  is  seen  in  his 
editions  of  many  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  classics.  Here 
again  he  purposed  to  give  a  more  accurate  knowledge  of  this 
literature  and  to  make  such  selections  as  would  expose  the 
formality  and  the  corruption  of  his  times.  Most  important 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      381 

of  these  were  the  editions  of  Terence,  Seneca,  Cicero,  Sue- 
tonius, and  Plautus. 

A  work  of  even  greater  importance  for  schools  was  per- 
formed in  the  translation  or  preparation  of  Latin  and  Greek 
grammars  and  of  text-books,  of  which  the  most  famous  and 
most  widely  used  was  The  Colloquies.  Since  satire  on  moral 
evils  is  scarcely  the  proper  form  of  a  text-book  for  youth,  the 
content  of  these  dialogues  is  such  that  one  may  well  question 
the  advisability  of  the  use  of  them  in  schools,  but  the  age 
that  spent  much  time  reproducing  the  plays  of  Plautus,  of 
Terence,  and  of  similar  texts  could  hardly  be  expected  to 
object  to  the  milder  presentation  of  The  Colloquies. 

There  remains  to  be  mentioned  yet  one  more  source  of 
Erasmus's  influence,  —  his  discussions  of  educational  subjects 
direct.  These  are  found  in  some  of  The  Colloquies,  in  The 
Ciceronians,  in  his  Method  of  Study,  in  his  Liberal  Education 
of  Children.  His  educational  beliefs  —  there  was  no  system 
of  philosophy  —  were  as  follows.  The  writings  of  the  clas- 
sical authors,  the  Church  Fathers,  and  the  Scriptures  contain 
all  that  is  necessary  for  guidance  in  this  life  and  for  the 
reform  of  the  many  existing  abuses ;  but  it  is  necessary 
to  know  these  in  the  original  and  in  their  uncorrupted  form 
Consequently,  the  great  work  of  the  schools  is  to  study  a 
wide  selection  of  these  and  thoroughly  to  imbibe  their  spirit. 
No  mere  mastery  of  form  is  sufficient,  nor  is  a  limited 
selection  of  authors  to  be  allowed.  In  place  of  dialectic  dis- 
tinctions or  obscurities,  rhetorical  analysis  and  appreciation 
are  to  be  used.  Grammar  necessarily  forms  the  basis  of  ail 
school  work,  but  grammar  as  an  intelligent  approach  to 
literature.  Nature,  history,  and  contemporary  life  are  to 
illumine  this  literary  study,  as  it  in  turn  is  to  reform  society. 
Such  knowledge  should  be  disseminated  broadly,  and  should 
be  free  to  women  as  well  as  to  men.  The  moral  purpose  in 
education  should  ever  be  emphasized,  and  a  study  of  religious 
literature  and  participation  in  religious  services  should  form 


382  History  of  Education 

a  part  of  all  such  training.  In  a  similar  way,  conduct,  be 
havior,  and  the  amenities  of  life  receive  due  appreciation, 
though  some  things  which  Erasmus  emphasizes  as  principles 
of  politeness  appear  quite  ludicrous  to  the  reader  of  the 
present.  The  spirit,  however,  in  this  respect,  is  that  of  the 
best  of  the  Italian  Renaissance.  The  barbarous  methods  of 
discipline  of  the  times  are  condemned  and  more  attractive 
methods  are  commended.  A  study  of  the  child  is  advised 
and  personal  care  and  direction  of  his  studies  insisted  upon. 
The  function  of  the  mother,  the  importance  of  play  and  of 
exercise,  the  necessity  of  keeping  education  vitally  in  touch 
with  the  life  of  the  times,  are  all  recognized.  Many  details 
of  sound  method,  such  as  repetition,  procedure  through  the 
mastery  of  small  portions  of  work,  importance  of  introductory 
studies  such  as  grammar  and  many  similar  topics,  find  expo- 
sition in  his  writings.  Above  all,  —  he  combats  the  obscurant- 
ists of  his  own  school  who  would  narrow  the  new  learning  to 
a  formalism  scarcely  less  repellent,  certainly  no  more  fruitful, 
than  the  old  which  it  replaced. 

Few  of  the  educational  leaders  of  the  sixteenth  or  seven- 
teenth centuries,  and  probably  none  of  the  important  schools, 
failed  to  reflect  in  some  degree  the  educational  influence  of 
this  great  master. 

English  Humanistic  Educators.  —  As  England  produced  no 
great  Renaissance  leaders  who  exerted  any  wide  reputation, 
so  her  humanistic  educators  are  those  of  rather  local,  or,  at 
best,  national  influence.  Among  these  were  the  scholars  who 
introduced  Greek  and  the  new  learning  into  the  university, 
such  as  Linacre,  Grocyn  and  Cheke ;  or  those  who  organized 
it  for  the  schools,  such  as  Colet,  Lilly  and  Ascham;  or  those, 
like  More,  who  exerted  a  general  influence  similar  to  that  of 
Erasmus.  Most  of  these  will  receive  casual  mention  in  sub- 
sequent paragraphs.  Special  attention  can  be  given  to  but 
one. 

Roger  Ascham  (1515-1 568)  has  achieved  a  reputation  above 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      383 

all  other  English  humanistic  educators.  This  is  due  to  two 
things :  first,  that  he  was  one  of  the  first  Englishmen  to  write 
a  treatise  on  education  in  the  vernacular ;  and,  second,  that  he 
possessed  a  style  that  has  given  him  a  place  in  literature  as 
well  as  in  educational  history.  Ascham  was  a  product  of 
the  early  Renaissance  revival  at  Cambridge,  and  succeeded 
Cheke,  his  master,  to  the  chair  of  Greek.  Later  he  became 
tutor  to  the  Princess,  later  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  then  her 
Latin  secretary.  As  with  Sturm,  Reuchlin,  and  many  of  the 
humanistic  leaders,  he  was  a  man  of  public  affairs  as  well  as 
an  educator,  and  speaks  with  the  authority  of  such  experience 
as  well  as  that  of  a  schoolmaster.  This  authority  and  his 
royal  influence  gave  him  his  reputation  during  his  lifetime, 
for  his  educational  treatise,  The  Schoolmaster,  was  not  pub- 
lished until  after  his  death  (1571).  His  conception  of  educa- 
tion, though  definitely  limited  by  the  title  of  his  book  to 
schoolroom  education,  is  that  of  the  typical  humanists.  Its 
aim  is  defined  in  terms  of  culture  and  virtue.  Moral  pur- 
pose and  practical  efficiency  are  supposed  to  be  its  outcome ; 
but  these  ends  are  to  be  gained  wholly  by  the  use  of  literature. 
His  analysis  of  the  subject-matter  of  education  shows  a  wide 
knowledge  of  the  classics,  and  his  recommendations  are  sim- 
ilar to  those  of  Erasmus  and  of  Sturm,  whom  he  closely  fol- 
lowed. His  treatise,  however,  is  so  largely  devoted  to  a 
discussion  of  method  that  the  general  impression  left  from 
the  insistence  on  the  importance  of  grammar  is  that  of  the 
narrower  humanists.  All  learning  seems  not  only  to  be  based 
on  this,  but  to  center  in  it.  In  his  treatment  of  method,  As- 
cham undoubtedly  stated  the  best  Renaissance  practice,  and 
since  this  has  not  been  discussed  in  previous  sections,  it  can 
most  appropriately  be  given  here,  not  only  as  representative 
of  Ascham,  but  of  the  best  humanistic  practices. 

"  First,  let  him  teach  the  child  cheerfully  and  plainly,  the 
cause  and  matter  of  the  letter ;  then  let  him  construe  it  into 


History  of  Education 

English  so  oft  as  the  child  may  easily  carry  away  the  under- 
standing of  it;  lastly,  parse  it  over  perfectly.  This  done 
thus,  let  the  child,  by  and  by,  both  construe  and  parse  it  over 
again ;  so  that  it  may  appear  the  child  doubteth  in  nothing 
that  his  master  taught  him  before.  After  this,  the  child  must 
take  a  paper  book,  and  sitting  in  some  place  where  no  man 
shall  prompt  him,  by  himself,  let  him  translate  into  English 
his  former  lesson.  Then,  showing  it  to  his  master,  let  the 
master  take  from  him  his  Latin  book,  and  pausing  an  hour 
at  the  least,  then  let  the  child  translate  his  own  English  into 
Latin  again  in  another  paper  book.  When  the  child  bring- 
eth  it,  turned  into  Latin,  the  master  must  compare  it  with 
Tullie's  book,  and  lay  them  both  together;  and  where  the 
child  doth  well,  either  in  choosing  or  true  placing  of  Tullie's 
words,  let  the  master  praise  him  and  say,  '  Here  ye  do  well.' 
For  I  assure  you,  there  is  no  such  whetstone  to  sharpen  a 
good  wit,  and  encourage  a  will  to  learning,  as  is  praise.  In 
these  few  lines  I  have  wrapped  up  the  most  tedious  part  of 
grammar,  and  also  the  ground  of  almost  all  the  rules  that  are 
so  busily  taught  by  the  master,  and  so  hardly  learned  by  the 
scholar  in  all  common  schools ;  which  after  this  sort  the  mas- 
ter shall  teach  without  all  error,  and  the  scholar  shall  learn 
without  great  pain,  the  master  being  led  by  so  sure  a  guide, 
and  the  scholar  being  brought  into  so  plain  and  easy  a  way. 
And  therefore  we  do  not  contemn  rules,  but  we  gladly  teach 
rules ;  and  teach  them  more  plainly,  sensibly,  and  orderly 
than  they  be  commonly  taught  in  common  schools.  For 
when  the  master  shall  compare  Tullie's  book  with  his  scholar's 
translation,  let  the  master  at  the  first  lead  and  teach  his 
scholar  to  join  the  rules  of  his  grammar-book  with  the  exam- 
ples of  his  present  lesson,  until  the  scholar,  by  himself,  be 
able  to  fetch  out  of  his  grammar  every  rule  for  every  exam- 
ple ;  so  as  the  grammar-book  be  ever  in  the  scholar's  hand, 
and  also  used  of  him  as  a  dictionary  for  every  present  use. 
This  is  a  lively  and  perfect  way  of  teaching  of  rules ;  where 
the  common  way  used  in  common  schools,  to  read  the  gram- 
mar alone  by  itself  is  tedious  for  the  master,  hard  for  the 
scholar,  cold  and  uncomfortable  for  them  both." 

Though  the  details  of  method  are  expanded  to  constitute 
the  greater  part  of  the  book,  this  double  translation  const! 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      385 

rutes  the  essential  practice.  This  method  is  a  very  great 
advance  beyond  the  ordinary  method  of  committing  to  mem- 
ory meaningless  forms  and  rules  in  an  unknown  tongue. 
Ascham's  treatise  on  method  has  been  considered,  not  only 
the  best  of  his  times,  but  has  often  been  pronounced  the  best 
of  any  time.  Dr.  Johnson  said,  "It  contains  perhaps  the 
best  advice  that  was  ever  given  for  the  study  of  languages." 
The  Schoolmaster  contains  one  other  reform  idea  expanded 
and  defended  almost  as  thoroughly  as  the  subject  of  method; 
that  is,  the  matter  of  discipline.  Ascham  opposed  the  brutal 
discipline  characteristic  of  all  schools  and  masters  of  his  time, 
and  argued  for  a  different  attitude  of  teacher  to  pupil  both 
for  moral  and  pedagogical  reasons.  Nevertheless,  corporal 
punishment  continued  to  be  used,  not  only  as  a  corrective  for 
evil,  but  as  the  chief  incentive  to  study.  The  two  great  con- 
tributions of  Ascham  to  the  educational  thought  of  the  time 
were  these  of  the  uselessness  and  the  evil  of  inflicting  physical 
pain  and  the  improved  method  as  a  substitute  for  the  purely 
formal  approach  to  grammar  and  literature,  and  yet  in  both 
matters  the  English  schools  continued  in  the  old  way  for 
fully  two  centuries  longer. 

TYPES  OF  HUMANISTIC  SCHOOLS.  — The  educational 
dominance  of  the  humanistic  ideas  was  exerted  first  through 
the  conquest  of  existing  educational  institutions,  primarily 
the  universities  and  the  recently  founded  burgher  schools; 
then  through  the  multiplication  of  such  schools  more  thor- 
oughly embodying  the  new  spirit  than  was  possible  in  those 
founded  under  the  aegis  of  the  old  traditions ;  finally,  by  the 
establishment  of  new  types  of  schools  wholly  expressive  of 
the  new  spirit.  By  the  time  this  latter  stage  was  reached 
the  Renaissance  movement  had  coalesced  with  the  Reforma- 
tion movement,  so  that  these  new  types  of  schools  were  con- 
nected with  some  aspect  of  the  latter  tendency.  In  the 
earlier  part  of  the  Renaissance  these  schools  attempted  to 
ac 


386  History  of  Education 

embody  the  broader  idea  of  the  liberal  education,  but  soon 
became  representative  of  the  narrow  humanistic  view  only. 
This  change  is  explained  partially  by  the  fact  that  the 
spirit  of  the  movement  itself  was  narrower ;  partially,  by  the 
natural  tendency  toward  formalism  in  the  attempted  realiza- 
tion of  any  general  and  somewhat  indefinite  ideal  in  educa- 
tion;  and  partially  by  the  prolonged,  preliminary  training  in 
language  forms  necessary  to  the  development  of  literary 
application  or  use  of  a  foreign  tongue  in  formal  discourse. 

In  time,  certainly  by  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, the  formalism  in  the  work  of  these  institutions  was  no 
less  characteristic  and  no  less  rigid,  though  different  in  con- 
tent, than  the  formalism  of  the  later  mediaeval  education. 
These  schools,  and  this  narrow  humanistic  education,  repre- 
sented the  practice  and  the  ideal  of  education  for  several 
centuries,  even  well  into  the  nineteenth,  before  there  was 
any  general  revolt  against  them.  In  the  subsequent  con- 
sideration of  other  types  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  these 
latter  were  protests  only  and  that  the  normal  condition  was 
the  one  determined  at  the  period  now  under  consideration. 

The  Universities.  —  These  general  statements  especially  are 
true  of  the  universities,  for  the  old  traditions  long  resisted 
the  spirit  of  the  new  learning.  Though  the  conquest  of 
some  was  complete,  and  the  new  subjects  in  time  found 
tolerance  in  all,  the  formalism  of  their  work  was  not  radically 
changed.  The  most  important  modifications  were  a  broad» 
ening  of  the  authority  which  dominated  the  work  and  the 
change  in  content  made  by  the  addition  of  literary  and 
linguistic  subjects,  especially  Greek  and  the  substitution  of 
classical  for  ecclesiastical  Latin.  It  was  in  the  Italian  uni- 
versities, those  of  Pavia,  Florence,  Padua,  Milan,  and  Rome, 
that  the  new  learning  first  found  a  permanent  home.  Grow- 
ing out  of  the  influence  of  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio,  teachers 
of  rhetoric  in  the  universities  began  to  devote  their  tirne~~tcT 
the  study  of  the  classical  authors,  the  "imitation  of  the 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      387 

ancients"  became  a  passion  with  many,  and  students  were 
drawn  from  the  dominant  interest  of  law  and  dialectic. 
This  imitation  led  to  the  study  of  the  classics  and  from  that 
to  an  attempt  at  reproduction,  especially  through  epistolary 
efforts,  that  in  the  case  of  the  leading  humanists  produced 
a  real  literature ;  for  this  imitation  was  not  only  an  attempt 
to  master  the  style  of  the  ancients,  but  also  to  assimilate  the 
content  of  their  writings  and  their  dominant  ideas  and  their 
"conduct  of  life.  Of  these  teachers  probably  Barzizza  (1370- 
1431)  was  the  most  noted,  and  when  the  scholarship  became 
critical  Lorenzo  Valla  (1407-1457)  the  most  learned.  The 
introduction  of  the  knowledge  of  Greek  through  the  Byzan- 
tine Greeks  and  especially  the  work  of  Chrysoloras  has  been 
mentioned.  Boccaccio  was  probably  the  first  Italian  who  got 
hold  of  any  conception  of  the  classical  Greek.  During  the 
fifteenth  century  the  teaching  of  Greek  either  in  the  univer- 
sities or  in  the  schools  under  the  patronage  of  local  lords,  or 
under  wholly  private  auspices,  became  oxuite  common  through- 
out Italy;  through  students  from  the  North  this  new  learning 
was  carried  into  all  those  countries.  By  the  sixteenth  century 
the  classical  study  in  these  universities  had  degenerated  into 
that  narrow  Ciceronianism  previously  noted. 

As  the  new  learning  had  spread  through  Italy  chiefly 
through  the  wandering  scholars  and  teachers,  so  it  passed 
to  the  universities  of  the  North  during  the  latter  half  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  University  of  Paris,  where  the  Hier- 
onymians  had  gained  a  stronghold  and  favored  the  new 
learning,  was  the  storm  center.  Greek  was  taught  here  as 
early  as  1458.  The  political  connection  between  France  and 
Italy  was  especially  close  after  1494;  this  aided  the  develop- 
ment in  intellectual  sympathy,  already  strong  because  of 
the  basal  Latin  character.  During  the  sixteenth  century 
French  scholars  and  printers  were  the  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment both  within  and  without  the  universities. 

After  1460  the  German  universities  of  Heidelberg,  Erfurt; 


388  History  of  Education 

and  Leipzig  were  frequented  by  these  wandering  teachers 
of  "poetry."  The  first  permanent  chair  of  the  new  learn- 
ing, "  Poetry  and  Eloquence  "  it  was  called,  was  established 
at  Erfurt  in  1494.  Wittenberg,  founded  in  1502,  was  human- 
istic from  the  beginning,  and  by  1520  the  new  learning  was 
at  least  represented  in  all  and  thoroughly  dominant  in  several 
of  the  German  universities. 

The  new  learning  was  introduced  into  England  through 
Oxford  by  a  group  of  students  who  had  acquired  their 
inspiration  from  the  Italian  schools.  The  foremost  of  these 
Hellenists  were  William  Grocyn  and  Thomas  Linacre. 
Around  these  men  Erasmus  found  a  group  of  scholars 
gathered  when  he  came  to  Oxford  in  1498.  At  Cambridge, 
it  was  Erasmus  himself  who  introduced  the  new  learning 
from  1510  to  1513.  Ascham  and  Colet  were  Cambridge 
products  of  the  early  sixteenth  century. 

Schools  of  the  Court  and  of  the  Nobility.  —  The  conservatism, 
or  the  hostility  of  the  universities  and  of  the  Church  and 
monastic  schools  to  the  new  learning,  led  to  the  establishment 
of  many  schools  embodying  the  new  spirit  through  the  pat- 
ronage extended  to  scholars  by  the  monarchs  and  the  nobility 
of  the  times.  This  was  especially  true  in  many  of  the  small 
Italian  states,  ^nere  the  dignity  of  the  court  was  much  en- 
hanced by  such  attendants.  A  great  rivalry  grew  up  among 
these  states  for  the  attachment  of  noted  scholars  or  for  the 
possession  of  famous  schools.  The  customary  migratory 
life  of  these  scholars  in  their  search  for  learning  or  for  new 
honors  encouraged  this  competition  and  assisted  in  the 
dissemination  of  the  new  learning.  At  Florence,  Verona, 
Padua,  Venice,  Pavia,  and  numerous  Italian  cities  such  court 
circles  flourished,  frequently  with  no  organization  into  schools 
whatever.  Some  of  these  rivaled  the  universities  and  some 
were  in  connection  with  the  local  universities,  which  became 
in  a  way,  appendages  to  the  court.  Still  others,  as  the  famous 
one  at  Mantua  under  Vittorino  of  Feltra,  possessed  indepen- 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      389 

dent  organizations  as  schools.  Many  such  schools  of  these 
early  masters  embodied,  though  in  a  less  notable  degree,  the 
same  ideas  as  those  of  Vittorino.  The  function  which  these 
schools  had  in  the  education  of  the  children  of  the  court  led 
to  an  emphasis  on  the  physical  and  social  elements  in  educa- 
tion as  well  as  on  the  literary,  and  resulted  in  a  fusion  of  the 
chivalric  and  humanistic  ideas.  Hence  the  outcome  was  an 
approximation  to  the  schools  of  the  Greeks  such  as  was  seldom 
found  in  the  humanistic  schools  of  North  Europe.  At  the 
same  time,  it  will  be  remembered,  this  inclusion  of  elements  of 
education,  often  overlooked,  was  offset  by  the  fact  that  it  was 
the  personal  development  of  these  leaders  that  was  held  in 
view  rather  than  any  broader  social  or  moral  reformatory 
ends. 

The  Furstenschulen,  or  schools  for  princes,  founded  in 
Germany  during  the  early  sixteenth  century,  were  similar  to 
these  court  schools  of  Italy.  Resembling  these  latter  in 
their  purpose,  in  their  curriculum,  in  their  complete  control 
over  the  life  of  the  boys  and  to  a  certain  extent  in  their  spirit, 
they  differed  from  the  dominant  type  of  German  Renaissance 
schools  in  a  variety  of  respects.  They  were  not  controlled 
by  municipalities  as  were  the  gymnasien,  but  were  under  the 
immediate  control  of  the  courts;  they  were  boarding  schools, 
and  hence  had  a  wider  supervision  and  more  thorough  control 
over  the  students ;  they  aimed  to  train  directly  for  leadership 
in  Church  and  State ;  their  students  were  drawn  chiefly  from 
the  families  of  the  nobility ;  in  respect  to  the  content  of  their 
curriculum  they  represented  a  broader  if  less  definite  type 
than  the  gymnasien  and  to  an  extent  paralleled  the  work  of 
the  universities.  While  the  discipline  of  these  schools  was 
quite  monastic  in  character,  the  curriculum  was  less  rigid  and 
somewhat  more  responsive  to  the  needs  of  the  times  than 
was  that  of  the  gymnasien.  The  most  important  of  these 
schools,  never  very  numerous,  were  those  of  Pforta,  Meissen, 
and  Grimma. 


390  History  of  Education 

The  Schools  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  mentioned 
previously  as  among  the  best  schools  previous  to  the  Renais- 
sance movements,  and  mentioned  through  their  leaders, 
Hegius,  Agricola,  Reuchlin  as  furnishing  typical  humanistic 
educators,  were  among  the  earliest  of  schools  north  of  the 
Alps  to  embody  the  new  learning.  By  the  middle  of  the  fif-_ 
teenth  century  these  schools,  numbering  one  hundred  and  fifty; 
were  scattered  throughout  Flanders,  France,  and  Germany, 
and  were  represented  by  their  teaching  members  in  many 
other  schools.  Opposition  to  scholasticism  and  interest  in  the 
vernacular  and  in  JtUblical  instruction  had  well  prepared  the 
soil  for  the  planting  of  the  new  learning.  Soon  the  new  spirit 
in  grammatical  studies  and  the  devotion  to  literature,  as  well  as 
the  great  interest  in  Greek  and  Hebrew  and  advanced  studies 
in  general,  became  characteristic  of  the  schools  of  the  order. 
The  work  and  the  constitution  of  this  order  furnished  the 
chief  source  of  suggestion  for  the  organization  of  the  Jesuit 
schools,  which  by  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century 
supersede  those  of  the  "  scholarly  brethren,"  as  the  Hierony- 
mians  were  called. 

The  Gymnasien  were  the  typical  humanistic  schools  of  the 
Teutonic  countries,  and  have  remained  until  the  present  time 
as  the  best  type  of  the  secondary  schools  of  those  countries 
as  well  as  the  best  type  of  the  humanistic  schools  in  general. 
They  were  formed  from  the  existing  higher  burgher  schools 
by  the  substitution  of  the  classical  for  the  mediaeval  Latin, 
the  study  of  literature  for  the  old  formal  rhetoric,  of  mathe- 
matics for  dialectic,  and  the  addition  of  Greek  and  in  many 
cases  Hebrew.  The  school  at  Schlettstadt  in  Alsace  under  the 
influence  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life  was  one  of  the 
first  to  respond  to  the  new  spirit.  From  its  origin,  about  the 
middle  of  the  century,  it  had  under  its  first  rector,  Dringen- 
berg,  been  hostile  to  the  old  education.  From  it  came  many 
/)f  the  earlier  German  humanists,  as  Wimpfeling,  Beatus 
Rhenanus,  and  John  Sapidus.  As  early  as  1485  the  new 

.1  i  .iM.     AP 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      391 

.influences  were  at  work  in  the  burgher  school  at  Nuremberg, 
and  in  1495  "  poetry"  was  added  to  the  curriculum.  A  few 
years  later  "  poetry  "  and  "  oratory  "  were  introduced  into  all 
the  higher  schools  of  the  city.  Injjjaj^Latin,  Greek,  and 
Hebrew  were  introduced  into  the  old  cathedral  school,  and 
five  years  later  Melanchthon  inaugurated  a  new  secondary 
school  embodying  his  curriculum.  By  this  time  many  other 
city  schools  had  been  remodeled,  and  the  term  gymnasium 
began  to  be  used  to  indicate  the  schools  of  the  new  discipline. 
The  gymnasium  at  Strassburg,  organized  in  1537  by  John 
Sturm,  a  pupil  of  Wimpfeling,  and  conducted  by  him  for 
nearly  forty  years,  exerted  the  greatest  influence  of  any  of 
these  schools.  Though  somewhat  more  advanced  than  most 
gymnasien,  since  Sturm  in  his  later  years  aspired  to  develop 
a  university,  in  its  organization,  method,  and  curriculum  it  may 
be  taken  as  typical.  The  work  of  the  gymnasium  was  divi- 
ded into  ten  grades,  or  years,  closely  articulated,  with  work 
accurately  gauged  for  the  age  and  the  stage  of  advancement 
of  the  pupil ;  with  method  carefully  determined,  and  faith- 
fully adhered  to  for  years ;  and  with  subject-matter  for  the 
most  part  chosen  from  the  Latin  classics,  with  some  from  the 
Greek  and  from  the  New  Testament  Epistles  in  Greek.  As 
representative  of  more  than  three  centuries  it  may  be  well  to 
notice  the  curriculum  of  one  of  these  schools  more  in  detail. 
No  better  one  exists,  nor  one  worked  out  more  carefully  than 
this  of  Sturm.  A  summary  of  the  curriculum  is  as  follows:  — 

Tenth  Class :  The  alphabet,  reading,  writing,  Latin  declen- 
sions and  conjugations  ;  catechism  in  Latin  or  German.  Ninth 
Class  :  Declensions  and  conjugations  ;  Latin  vocabulary  of 
terms  of  everyday  life ;  irregular  Latin  forms.  Eighth 
Class  :  Continuation  of  above ;  composition  of  Latin  phrases  ; 
some  letters  of  Cicero ;  exercises  in  style.  Seventh  Class : 
Syntax  in  connection  with  Cicero's  Letters;  composition; 
translation  of  catechism,  etc.,  into  Latin.  Sixth  Class  :  Trans- 
lation of  Cicero,  Latin  poets,  catechism,  and  Letters  of  Jerome 
with  grammatical  exercises;  Greek  begun.  Fifth  Class; 


392  History  of  Education 

Latin  versification,  mythology;  Cicero;  Virgil's  Eclogues; 
Greek ;  exercise  in  style ;  double  translations  ;  Paul's  Epistles. 
Fourth  Class  :  Same  as  fifth  class,  with  wide  reading  of  Latin 
authors.  Third  Class  :  Rhetoric  ;  Orations  of  Cicero  and  of 
Demosthenes ;  double  translations  of  orations ;  composition 
of  letters  ;  presentation  of  comedies  of  Plautus  and  Terence 
in  this  and  higher  classes.  Second  Class  :  Greek  orators  and 
poets ;  dialectic  and  rhetoric  in  connection  with  Cicero  and 
Demosthenes ;  presentation  of  selected  dramas  of  Aristoph- 
anes, Euripides,  and  Sophocles,  in  addition  to  Plautus  and 
Terence.  First  Class  :  Dialectic  and  rhetoric  ;  Virgil,  Horace, 
Homer,  Thucydides,  Sallust,  Epistles  of  St.  Paul. 

The  entire  work  of  the  school  was  determined  by  its  great 
purpose,  —  the  development  of  the  ability  to  speak  and  write 
the  Latin  of  Cicero.  Though  Martial,  Horace,  Virgil,  Ter- 
ence, and  Plautus  were  used,  Cicero's  writings  formed  the 
bulk  of  the  curriculum.  The  orators  and  the  comedians  were 
especially  studied  for  the  command  which  they  gave  of  the 
spoken  language.  There  was  much  of  declamation,  oratory, 
presentation  of  plays,  disputations,  letter  writing  in  the 
school  for  the  same  reason.  Sturm  defined  the  aim  of  edu- 
cation to  be  piety,  knowledge,  and  eloquence.  By  the  first  he 
meant  knowledge  of  catechism,  creed,  etc.,  with  reverence  for 
religion  and  with  participation  in  Church  services ;  by  knowl- 
edge he  meant  the  Latin  language  and  literature;  and  by 
eloquence  the  ability  to  use  that  language  in  practical  life. 
As  a  result,  Sturm  trained  many  of  the  leaders  of  his  time ; 
his  school  often  had  more  than  a  thousand  pupils  from  many 
lands,  and  many  from  the  nobility.  His  influence  was  exerted 
on  the  schools  of  the  sixteenth  century  through  the  many 
expert  teachers  whom  he  trained,  through  the  influence  of  his 
model  course  of  study  so  often  imitated,  through  his  published 
texts  more  carefully  graded  than  any  hitherto,  through  his 
correspondence  as  with  such  men  as  Ascham  and  Melanch- 
thon,  and  through  his  personal  advice  and  influence  in  the 
establishment  of  schools.  Though  representative  of  the 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      393 

cimes,  the  school  was  of  the  narrowest  humanistic  type.  No 
attention  was  given  to  the  vernacular,  and  only  casual  men- 
tion is  made  of  geography  and  mathematics.  In  later  years 
Hebrew  was  introduced.  This  represents  the  gymnasium  of 
the  sixteenth  century ;  and  with  some  gradual  curtailment 
of  the  classical  element  in  favor,  first,  of  mathematics,  then 
of  modern  language  and  history  and,  finally,  to  some  slight 
•extent,  of  the  natural  sciences,  it  represents  the  gymnasium 
from  that  time  to  the  present. 

With  the  progress  of  the  Reformation  and  the  organization 
of  state  systems  of  schools,  the  gymnasien  passed  under  the 
control  of  the  central  governments  and  became,  as  they  have 
remained,  the  unifying  core  of  these  systems. 

TJie  English  Public.  Schools  represent  the  formulation  of  the 
same  type  of  schools.  Here  such  schools  are  on  foundations, 
independent  of  both  State  and  Church,  furnished  by  private 
benevolence  or  by  royal  endowment.  It  is  to  this  character- 
istic that  the  term  public  refers,  for  tuition  charges  are  uni- 
versal, as  with  the  gymnasien,  and  are  here  quite  high. 
Such  schools  had  been  founded  before  the  Renaissance,  begin- 
ning with  Winchester  (1379)  an(*  Eton  (1440).  But  it  was 
not  until  after  the  founding  of  St.  Paul's  in  London  (1512) 
that  they  became  either  numerous  or  representative  of  the 
Renaissance.  St.  Paul's,  founded  by  John  Colet,  to  whom 
reference  has  been  made  as  one  of  the  early  humanistic 
leaders  of  England,  became  the  model  in  curriculum,  in 
method,  and  in  purpose.  The  first  master,  William  Lilly, 
also  a  humanistic  leader,  perpetuated  his  influence  and  that 
of  the  school  in  a  Latin  grammar  that  was  the  standard  text 
for  all  English  schools  for  generations.  The  curriculum  was 
outlined  in  the  rules  formulated  by  Colet  as  follows :  — 

"As  towchyng  in  this  scole  what  shalby  taught  of  the 
maisters  and  lernyd  of  the  scolers,  it  passith  my  wit  to  devyse 
and  determyn  in  particuler  but  in  generall  to  speke  and  sum 
what  to  saye  my  mynde,  I  wolde  they  were  taught  all  way  in 


594.  History  of  Education 

good  litterature  both  laten  and  greke,  and  goode  auctours 
suych  as  haue  the  veray  Romayne  eliquence  joyned  withe 
wisdome  specially  Cristyn  auctours  that  wrote  theyre  wysdome 
with  clene  and  chast  laten  other  in  verse  or  in  prose,  for  my 
entent  is  by  thys  scole  specially  to  incresse  knowledge  and 
worshipping  of  god  and  oure  lorde  Crist  Jesu  and  good  Cristen 
lyff  and  maners  in  the  Children  And  for  that  entent  I  will  the 
Chyldren  lerne  ffirst  aboue  all  the  Cathechyzon  in  Englysh 
and  after  the  accidence  that  I  made  or  sum  other  yf  eny  be 
better  to  the  purpose  to  induce  chyldren  more  spedely  to 
laten  spech  And  thanne  Institutum  Christiani  homines  which 
that  lernyd  Erasmus  made  at  my  request  and  the  boke  called 
Copia  of  the  same  Erasmus  And  thenne  other  auctours  Chris- 
tian as  lactancius  prudentius  and  proba  and  sedulius  and 
Juuencus  and  Baptista  Mantuanus  and  suche  other  as  shalby 
tought  convenyent  and  moste  to  purpose  vnto  the  true  laten 
spech  all  barbary  all  corrupcion  all  laten  adulterate  which 
ignorant  blynde  folis  brought  into  this  worlde  and  with  the 
same  hath  distayned  and  poysenyd  the  olde  laten  spech  and 
the  varay  Romayne  tong  which  in  the  tyme  of  Tully  and 
Salust  and  Virgill  and  Terence  was  vsid,  whiche  also  seint 
Jerome  and  seint  ambrose  and  seint  Austin  and  many  hooly 
doctors  lernyd  in  theyr  tymes.  I  say  that  ffylthynesse  and 
all  such  abusyon  which  the  later  blynde  worlde  brought  in 
which  more  ratheyr  maybe  callid  blotterature  thenne  litterature 
I  vtterly  abbanysh  and  Exclude  oute  of  this  scole  and  charge  the 
Maisters  that  they  teche  all  way  that  is  the  best  and  instruct 
the  chyldren  in  greke  and  Redyng  laten  in  Redyng  vnto 
them  suych  auctours  that  hathe  with  wisdome  joyned  the  pure 
chaste  eloquence." 

This  rather  conservative  attitude  toward  the  new  learning 
becomes  a  more  confident  one  with  a  half  century's  experi- 
ence and  then  approximates  that  of  the  continental  schools. 
The  organization  of  the  school  was  into  eight  grades,  though 
later  the  typical  one  for  these  public  schools  was  that  of  six 
grades  or  "  forms." 

At  the  time  when  Colet  founded  St.  Paul's  there  existed  in 
England  from  two  to  three  hundred  secondary  schools  in 
connection  with  monasteries,  with  cathedral,  or  collegiate 


FIRST  ENGLISH  PUBLIC  SCHOOL;   WINCHESTER,  1387.    RELATIONSHIP 
WITH  MONASTIC  SCHOOLS  INDICATED. 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      395 

churches,  with  charity  foundations  in  parish  churches,  with 
guilds,  or  upon  independent  foundations.  There  were  few  of 
these  latter,  and  all  were  inferior  to  Winchester  and  Eton. 
The  close  connection  between  these  and  the  Church  or  the 
monastic  schools  is  indicated  by  the  illustration  given,  which 
is  the  oldest  representation  of  Winchester  School.  The  chief 
difference  between  these  and  monastic  or  hospital  founda- 
tions was  in  the  beginning  not  one  of  kind  but  of  degree. 
Here  priests  and  paupers  were  provided  for  as  well  as 
scholars;  only  there  were  seventy  of  the  latter  and  three 
priests  and  sixteen  charity  foundationers.  The  main  function 
of  the  institution  was  the  training  of  future  priests  by  the  im- 
mediate preparation  of  students  for  New  College,  Oxford; 
hence  teachers  were  provided,  and  behold !  a  new  institution, 
a  school  rather  than  a  monastery  or  a  hospital.  With  the 
progress  of  the  Reformation  movement  came  the  dissolution 
of  monasteries  and  chantries  and  consequently  the  suppres- 
sion of  many  of  these  schools  under  Henry  VIII  (1509-1 547). 
Many,  however,  escaped  suppression,  and  numerous  others 
were  refounded,  thus  giving  to  Edward  VI  in  later  days  the 
undeserved  title  of  "founder  of  schools."  What  concerns 
us  now,  however,  is  that  these  schools  were  all  remodeled  on 
Renaissance  lines,  and  quite  as  complete  a  substitution  of  the 
schools  of  the  new  learning  occurred  as  did  in  Germany. 
These  public  schools,  nine  of  which,  Winchester,  Eton,  St. 
Paul's,  Westminster,  Harrow,  Charter-House,  Rugby,  Shrews- 
bury, and  Merchant  Taylors,  are  termed  "great,"  continue 
the  narrow  humanistic  training  as  formulated  during  this 
early  Renaissance  period,  almost  without  any  modification, 
until  the  report  of  the  royal  commissioners  of  investigation 
in  1864. 

The  Grammar  School  of  the  American  colonies  was  a 
transplanted  English  public  school,  now,  however,  for  the 
most  part  supported  and  controlled  by  the  colonies  and  the 
local  town  governments.  Only  rarely  did  it  receive  a  foun- 


History  of  Education 


dation  by  bequest,  and  even  more  rarely  was  it  founded  bj 
religious  or  private  association.  The  curriculum,  the  method, 
and  the  purpose  were  almost  identical  with  those  of  then 
English  prototypes.  Such  schools  were  to  be  found  in  all 
the  colonies,  with  the  exception  of  Georgia  and  North  Caro- 
lina, but  were  most  numerous  in  the  New  England  colonies 
where  the  religious  motive  was  prominent  and  where  colleges 
demanding  the  preparatory  grammar  training  were  influen- 
tial. In  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Maryland,  systems 
of  such  schools  existed,  and  in  the  first  of  these  colonies  such 

schools  were  established  in 
considerable  number.  The 
first  of  these  in  America 
was  the  Boston  Latin 
School,  founded  1635,  with 
a  continuous  existence  to 
the  present  time.  The 
illustration  given  is  of  the 
old  schoolhouse  in  connec- 
tion with  King's  Chapel, 
as  it  was  during  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, at  the  close  of  the 
long  mastership  of  Ezekiel  Cheever.  Cheever,  the  most  fa- 
mous of  colonial  schoolmasters,  came  to  the  Boston  school  in 
1670,  after  a  teaching  experience  of  years  in  New  Haven  and 
in  Charlestown,  and  served  yet  thirty-eight  years  in  Boston. 
Owing  to  the  fact  that  social  and  educational  traditions  were 
far  less  binding  in  the  new  country,  the  humanistic  school 
gave  place  to  a  new  type  in  America  sooner  than  in  any  of 
the  European  countries.  By  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury the  Latin  schools  had  given  place  to  the  academy,  to  be 
mentioned  later. 

The  Jesuit  Schools,   which    flourished   in    great   numbers 
during  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth,  the  seventeenth,  and 


IHE  BOSTON  LATIN  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL, 

FOUNDED  1635. 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      397 

die  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  centuries,  constitute  a  most  im- 
portant type  of  the  humanistic  schools.  They  represent  for 
Roman  Catholic  countries  this  type  of  education.  In  their 
curriculum,  influenced  largely  by  the  humanistic  study  in  the 
universities,  by  the  schools  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common 
Life,  and  somewhat  by  Sturm's  successful  institution,  they 
are  thoroughly  humanistic.  Some  further  provision  was 
made  for  the  study  of  mathematics,  of  history,  and  of  the  con- 
tent of  literature  than  in  Sturm's  curriculum,  but  for  the  most 
part  the  work  of  these  schools  was  of  the  narrow  humanistic 
type  of  the  most  successful  character.  Since  these  schools 
constitute  the  most  prominent  example  of  the  types  of 
schools  growing  out  of  the  religious  controversies  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  fuller  presentation  of  them  must  be  given 
in  the  following  chapter. 

REFERENCES 

What  the  Renaissance  was. 

Adams,  Civilization  During  the  Middle  Ages,  Ch.  XV. 

Acton's  Cambridge  history,  Vol.  I,  The  Renaissance,  Chs.  XVI-XVII. 

(New  York,  1902.) 

Andrews,  Institutes  of  History,  Ch.  VIII. 
Burkhardt,  The  Renaissance  in  Italy,  Pt.  Ill,  Chs.  I,  IV,  V,  VI,  IX.     Pt.  IV, 

Chs.  II-V.     (London,  1878.) 
Draper,  J.  W.,  History  of  the  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,  Vol   II, 

Ch.  VI. 
Ducoudray,  G.,  History  of  Modern  Civilization,  Chs.  IX-X.     (New  York, 

1891.) 

Emerton,  Medieval  Europe,  Ch.  XIII.     (Boston,  1894.) 
Guizot,  F.  P.  G.,  History  of  Civilization,  Vol.  I,  Chs.  XI-XII.     (London, 

1846-1853.) 

Owen,  Skeptics  of  the  Renaissance,  Pt.  I.     (London,  1893.) 
Pater,  The  Renaissance,  pp.  31-52.     (New  York,  1893.) 
Putnam,  Books  and  their  Makers,  Vol.  I,  pp.  317-347. 
Robinson  and  Rolfe,  Petrarch,  Chs.  I-II.     (New  York,  1898.) 
Schaff,  P.,  The  Renaissance  and  the   Reformation,  in   the   Evangelical 

Alliance  for  the  United  States,  Document  XXX,  pp.  17-25. 
Stilte,  Studies  in  Mediceval  History,  Ch.  XIII.     (Philadelphia,  1888.) 


398  History  of  Education 

Symonds,  A  Short  History  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy,  Ch.  VII.     (London, 

1893-) 

Symonds,  The  Renaissance  in  Italy ;  The  Revival  of  Learning.  Chs.  I- 
III,  Ch.  IX,  pp.  239-298.  (New  York,  1888.) 

The  Educational  Meaning  of  the  Renaissance. 

Barnard,  German  Teachers  and  Educators,  pp.  41-97.     (Hartford,  1878.) 
Barnard,    The  Renaissance  in  Italy,  in   Barnard^s  Journal,   Vol.   VII, 

pp.  413-460. 

Compayre',  History  of  Education,  pp.  83-111.     (Boston,  1886.) 
Drane,  Christian  Schools  and  Scholars,  Ch.  II.     (London,  1881.) 
Davidson,  History  of  Education,  pp.  175-180.     (New  York,  1900.) 
Erasmus,  Upon  the  Right  Method  of  Study  (in  Woodward,  Erasmus}. 
Hazlett,  Schools,  School  Books,  and  Schoolmasters,  Chs.  VII-IX.     (London 

1888.) 
Janssen,  History  of  the  German  People  at  the  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages, 

Vol.  I,  Chs.  I-II.     (St.  Louis,  1896-1903.) 

Jebb,  Humanism  in  Education  (Romanes  Lectures).     (London,  1899.) 
Kemp,  History  of  Education,  pp.  149-183.     (Philadelphia,  1902.) 
Monroe,  Thomas  Platter  and  the  Educational  Renaissance  of  the  Sixteenth 

Century,  Introduction.     (New  York,  1904.) 
Painter,  History  of  Education,  pp.  119-133.     (New  York,  1887.) 
Quick,  Educational  Reformers,  Chs.  I-III.     (New  York,  1899.) 
Russell,  German  Higher  Schools,  Ch.  II.     (New  York,  1899.) 
Woodward,  Vittorino  da  Feltre,  pp.  1-93,  134-161.     (Cambridge,  1897.) 
Woodward,  Desiderius  Erasmus,   Concerning  the  Aim  and  Method  oj 

Education,  Ch.  II.     (Cambridge,  1904.) 

Renaissance  Educators. 

Barnard,  German  Teachers  and  Educators,  pp.  41-84.  On  the  Hierony- 
mians,  Reuchlin,  Agricola,  Erasmus,  Platter,  Melanchthon,  etc. 

Drummond,  Erasmus,  Chs.  VII  and  X,  znd  passim.     (London,  1873.) 

Laurie,  Development  of  Educational  Opinion  since  the  Renaissance,  pp.  18- 
85.  (Cambridge,  1903.) 

Owen,  Skeptics  of  the  Renaissance,  Pt.  II. 

Platter,  in  Monroe,  Whitcomb,  and  Barnard. 

Quick,  Educational  Reformers,  pp.  22-32. 

Seebohm,  Oxford  Reformers,  Chs.  I,  VI.     (London,  1887.) 

Types  of  Humanistic  Schools. 

Barnard,  German  Teachers  and  Educators,  pp.  85-92,  185-229. 
Hamlyn,  Universities  of  Europe  at  the  Period  of  the  Reformation.     (Ox 
ford.  1876.) 


Renaissance  and  Humanistic  Education      399 

Laurie,    The  Renaissance  and  the  School,   in  School  Review,  Vol.  Ill, 

pp.  140-148,  202-214. 
Laurie,  Development  of  Educational  Opinion  since  the  Renaissance,  pp.  I- 

93- 

Russell,  German  Higher  Schools,  Ch.  II.     (New  York,  1899.) 

Whitcomb,  Source  Book  of  the  Renaissance,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1-62.  (Phila- 
delphia, 1899.) 

Woodward,  Vittorino  da  Feltre,  pp.  1-93. 

Woodward,  Vittorino  da  Feltre  and  Erasmus,  as  above. 

Robinson  and  Rolfe,  Monroe,  DraDe,  Russell,  Painter,  Compayre',  Kemp, 
etc.,  as  above. 


TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  INVESTIGATION 

1.  What  similarity  exists  between  the  educational  situation  and  educa- 
tional problem  of  the  Renaissance  and  of  the  Sophist  period  of  Greek 
education  ? 

2.  Describe  the  ideal  of  culture  and  of  personal  development  as  found 
in  the  writings  of  Petrarch,  Boccaccio,  etc. 

3.  Make  a  list  of  the  subjects  discussed  as  of  interest  in  the  writings  of 
Petrarch  or  any  Renaissance  writer,  and  compare  with  a  similar  list  from 
writings  or  chronicles  or  tales  of  the  mediaeval  period. 

4.  What  contrasts  can  you  discover  between  the  worldliness  of  the 
Renaissance  as  shown  in  the  literature  of  the  period  with  the  other  worldli- 
ness of  the  mediaeval  period? 

5.  To  what  extent  were  the  earlier  scientific  discoverers  —  e.g.  Lauren- 
tius  Valla,  Copernicus,  Columbus  —  guided  by  knowledge   gained  direct 
from  writings  of  the  Greeks  ? 

6.  What  similarity  exists  in  conception  of  aim,  organization,  method, 
etc.,  of  education  of  early  Renaissance  writers  and  those  of  Greek  and  Roman 
writers?     (See  translations  in  Woodward.) 

7.  What  is  a  liberal  education? 

8.  Can  there  be  an  absolute  standard  for  a  liberal  education  ? 

9.  Can  there  be  an  absolute  curriculum  for  a  liberal  education? 

10.  What  is  the  meaning  and  content  of  humanism? 

11.  Make  a  study  of  Erasmus's  dialogue  on  Ciceronianism. 

12.  Give  an  analysis  of  Erasmus's  treatise  on  methods  of  teaching. 

13.  Give  an  analysis  of  Wimpfeling's  treatise  on  Youth  (Adolescentia)  ol 
of  his  Guide  to  the  German  Youth. 

14.  Give  an  account  of  the  educational  activities  and  influences  of  the 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life. 


400  History  of  Education 

15.  What  are  the  merits  and  demerits  of  The  Colloquies  of  Erasmus  as 
a  text-book  when  compared  with  material  previously  used? 

16.  What  evidences  do  you  find  of  the  inclusion  of  new  elements  in  edu- 
cation in  the  Renaissance  period? 

17.  Trace  the  place  held  by  the  physical  element  in  education  from  the 
ancient  through  the  mediaeval  and  modern  periods.     The  aesthetic  element. 

18.  Describe  in  detail  the  work  of  Reuchlin  or  of  any  of  the  humanistic 
educators  mentioned  but  briefly. 

19.  What  similarity  exists  between  the  methods  described  in  detail  in 
Ascham's  Schoolmaster  and  the  best  methods  in  use  in  the  present  in  teach- 
ing languages  ? 

20.  Make  a  comparison  between  Lilly's  Grammar  and  those  now  in  use. 

21.  Give  a  description  of  the  content  and  method  of  work  of  the  English 
public  school. 

22.  What  material  can  you  find  relating  to  the  method  and  subject- 
matter  of  work  of  the  colonial  grammar  school? 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   REFORMATION,   COUNTER-REFORMATION,   AND 
THE   RELIGIOUS  CONCEPTION   OF  EDUCATION 

WHAT  THE  REFORMATION  WAS.  — The  most  funda- 
mental features  of  this  period  have  already  been  mentioned  in 
stating  the  changed  character  of  the  Renaissance  in  the  North. 
For  the  Renaissance  in  Germany  is  not  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  Reformation,  save  in  its  spirit  and  in  its  outcome. 
The  interest  of  the  Italian  Renaissance  was  largely  in  classical 
jjgd  pagan  Jiterature;  the  Teutonic  Renaissance  in  patristic 
and  Christian  literature.  As  has  been  previously  stated,  the 
one  was  concerned  in  personal  culture,  the  other  in  social 
reform  in  morals  and  in  religion.  One  was  individualistic 
and  self-centered,  the  other  was  social  and  reformatory.  The 
explanation  of  the  difference  is  found  partially  in  the  fact 
that  the  civilization  of  the  Latin  countries  was  based  directly 
upon  the  classical  institutions,  the  traditions  and  influences 
of  which  were  ever  present,  while  the  civilization  of  the 
Teutons  had  been  a  direct  outgrowth  of  their  Christianiza- 
tion ;  partially,  in  the  fact  that  the  Teutonic  mind  possessed 
a  moral  and  religious  bent,  while  the  Latin  mind  was  pre- 
dominantly secular  in  its  interests.  The  interests  of  the 
fifteenth  century  were  literary  and  aesthetic,  and  involved 
the  recovery  and  appreciation  of  the  classical  literatures. 
Those  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  ethical  and  theological, 
and  involved  criticism  and  reconstruction  rather  than  appre- 
ciation. 

This  criticism  and  this  reconstruction  were  directed  toward 
two  aspects  of  religion,  one  abstract  and  theological,  the  other 

2D  401 


4O2  History  of  Education 

practical  and  moral.  In  both  the  ethical  and  the  theological 
aspects  of  the  movement  a  division  of  the  Church  was  in- 
volved ;  in  the  former  necessarily,  in  the  latter  only  tempera- 
mentally. The  movement  began  with  the  former,  that  is,  with 
the  effort  to  reform  the  many  abuses  within  the  Church.  The 
necessity  for  such  a  reform  was  admitted  by  the  Church  long 
before  the  actual  break  occurred,  and  was  striven  for  by 
many  sections  of  the  Catholic  Church  both  before  and  after 
the  open  break  had  taken  place.  This  tendency  toward 
moral  reform  within  the  Church  culminated  in  the  Council  of 
Trent  (1545-1562),  and  in  itself  could  probably  have  caused 
no  permanent  division.  But  by  that  time  the  abstract  and 
theological  differences,  due  to  fundamental  disagreement, 
had  become  so  prominent  that  harmonization  was  no  longer 
possible. 

This  fundamental  and  necessary  divergence  in  the  concep- 
tion of  religion  is  due  to  the  nature  of  the  human  mind,  and 
had  appeared  in  the  discussions  of  the  later  Middle  Ages 
between  nominalism  and  realism.  But  so  long  as  men's 
minds  remained  essentially  uncritical  and  without  the  basis 
for  forming  positive  judgments,  so  long  the  inherent  incom- 
patibility of  the  views  did  not  cause  open  rupture.  With  the 
Renaissance  this  basis  was  furnished  in  the  knowledge  of 
ancient  and  patristic  literature  and  through  the  critical  spirit 
thus  developed.  Hence  it  was  inevitable  that  these  two 
views  of  religion  should  come  in  conflict.  The  one  view  looks 
upon  religion  as  a  completed  truth,  revealed  in  its  entirety  by 
divine  providence  and  given  into  the  hands  of  an  institution, 
whose  origin,  constitution,  and  authority  are  divine  in  the  same 
sense  and  for  the  same  reason  that  obtain  in  the  case  of  the 
original  revelation.  To  the  other  view,  religion  is  a  truth  divine 
in  its  origin,  but  completed  only  with  the  growth  and  through 
the  development  of  the  spirit  of  man.  It  is  not  a  completed 
truth,  but  one  whose  principles  are  perfected  by  progressive 
application  through  the  lives  of  men.  Its  particular  meaning 


The  Reformation  403 

in  time  and  place,  is  given  by  the  application  of  man's  reason 
to  the  original  revelation.  Both  accepting  the  original  reve- 
lation as  the  basis,  the  one  finds  the  truth  completed  in  the 
authority  of  the  Church,  the  other  in  the  reason  of  the  indi- 
vidual. Hence  the  Reformation  is  but  the  continued  expan- 
sion of  the  function  of  reason  originating^n  the  Renaissance, 
and  now  applied  to  matters  of  religion.  This  statement  ex 
plains  the  essential  spirit  of  the  movement,  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  the  reformers,  including  Luther,  denounced 
reason  and  asserted  their  unquestioned  submission  to  author 
ity.  The  same  tendency  to  observation,  comparison,  criticism, 
that  is  the  appeal  to  original  sources  and  to  experience  which 
characterizes  the  humanistic  Renaissance,  is  the  essential 
characteristic  of  the  Protestant  Reformation.  And  from  this 
grew  the  most  important  educational  consequences. 

The  counter-Reformation,  arising  out  of  the  period  of  the 
Council  of  Trent  and  using  as  its  chief  means  on  the  negative 
or  repressive  side  the  Inquisition,  and  on  the  positive  or  con- 
structive side  education,  indicated  the  reaction  against  this 
movement  toward  separation.  This  education  was  controlled 
for  the  most  part  by  the  newly  organized  teaching  congrega- 
tions, chief  among  which  was  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  PERIOD  ON  THE  CONCEPTION 
AND  SPIRIT  OF  EDUCATION.  —  The  logical  outcome  of 
the  views  of  the  reformers  would  have  led  to  a  continuous 
development  of  the  Renaissance  emphasis  upon  the  use  of 
reason  as  the  guide  to  the  interpretation  of  secular  life  and 
of  nature,  to  the  restriction  of  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures 
to  religious  matters,  and  to  the  use  of  reason  by  the  individual 
even  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures.  But  the  tenden- 
cies in  all  of  these  lines  were  checked  before  the  expiration 
of  a  single  generation.  Luther,  in  the  early  days  at  Witten- 
berg, wrote :  "  What  there  is  contrary  to  reason  is  certainly 
much  more  contrary  to  God.  For  how  should  not  that  be 


404  History  of  Education 

against  divine  truth  which  is  against  reason  and  human 
truth  ?  "  And  even  later  he  said,  "  It  is  admitted  that  reason 
is  the  chief  of  all  things,  and  among  all  that  belongs  to  this 
life,  the  best,  yea,  a  something  divine."  But  before  the  close 
of  his  life  he  stated  as  his  view  that,  "The  more  subtle  and 
acute  is  reason,  the  more  poisonous  a  beast,  with  many  dragon's 
heads,  is  it  against  God,  and  all  His  works."  This  latter 
position  is  reiterated  over  and  over  with  characteristic  vehe- 
mence. And  this  change  is  more  than  individual ;  it  is 
general. 

The  Renaissance-Reformation  movement  gradually  divides 
into  three  main  currents.  There  is,  first,  the  scientific  and 
philosophical  tendency,  which  does  not  become  prominent 
until  the  seventeenth  century,  and  which  we  shall  notice 
under  the  later  realistic  movement;  next,  the  humanistic  ten- 
dency, which,  hampered  between  the  scholasticism  of  both 
branches  of  the  Church  and  the  formalism  of  Ciceronianismt 
finds  a  somewhat  precarious  home  within  the  pale  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  chiefly  in  France;  and  finally, 
the  theological  tendency  of  the  intervening  period,  which 
possesses  all  north  Europe  and  dominates  thought-life  as  well 
as  education. 

The  Reformation  leaders  recognized  for  themselves  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  Reformation  contained  inherently  the  right  of 
liberty  of  conscience  and  the  duty  of  interpreting  the  Scrip- 
tures according  to  one's  own  reason,  but  they  found  it  quite 
as  difficult  as  it  had  been  before  to  recognize  it  for  others. 
Hence,  instead  of  a  development  of  the  critical  and  rational 
faculties,  through  application  to  literature,  religion,  and  secu- 
lar affairs,  to  institutional  life  and  to  the  realities  of  nature, 
all  this  was  left  for  succeeding  centuries.  Even  then  this  prog- 
ress was  through  bitter  conflict  with  the  reformed  churches  as 
well  as  with  the  Roman  Catholic.  This  liberalism  of  thought 
and  emphasis  on  reason  finds  little  realization  in  the  educa- 
tipnjof  the  time,  either  as  formulated  into  doctrine,  a?  ^rgan- 


The  Reformation  405 

ized  into  schools,  or  as  expressing  the  somewhat  indefinable 
spirit  of  education. 

Formalism  in  its  Results.  —  Instead  of  this  we_find_educa-. 
tion  dominated  by  a  formalism  growing  out  of  the  domi-. 
nant  theological  groups,  the  Lutheran,  the  Calvinistic,  the 
Zwinglian,  and  the  Socinian,  with  their  almost  innumerable 
subdivisions  into  which  the  Protestant  movement  divided. 
Lutheranism  especially,  following  the  political  divisions  of 
the  German  people,  became  a  congeries  of  discordant  sects, 
whose  chief  interests  were  now  in  the  petty  conflicts  among 
themselves.  The  result  was  a  multitude  of  creeds,  expanded 
to  cover  the  minutest  details,  carrying  now  to  their  respective 
adherents  all  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  and  enforced  so 
far  as  the  German  states  were  concerned  by  the  powers  of 
government.  Not  only  was  intellectual  life  bound  within 
these  narrow  limits,  but  the  education  of  the  schools,  higher 
and  lower,  took  its  purpose  and  received  its  spirit  from  this 
same  formal  and  narrow  interest.  The  counter-Reformation 
intensified  the  same  attitude  upon  the  part  of  those  of  the 
Catholic  communion.  For  the  later  half  of  the  sixteenth 
and  for  all  of  the  seventeenth  century,  so  far  as  the  typical 
schools  were  concerned,  there  existed  a  new  scholasticism, 
either  Protestant  or  Roman  Catholic,  in  which  there  was  a 
return  to  Aristotelianism  as  a  basis  for  the  endless  definitions 
and  distinctions  made  necessary  by  these  involved  systems. 
Though  the  content  was  somewhat  different,  the  spirit  and 
the  form  of  this  scholasticism  of  the  sixteenth  century  was 
fEe  same  as  that  of  the  thirteenth. 

Hence  it  was  that  the  Reformation  failed  to  produce  dur- 
ing the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  those  intellectual 
and  educational  results  which  were  logically  involved  in  the 
basal  positions  of  the  reformers  so  far  as  these  related  to 
free  learning,  the  spread  of  culture,  and  the  development  of 
science.  The  bitter  partisan  and  destructive  religious  wars 
of  the  entire  period  were  partially  responsible  for  this  domi- 


406  History  of  Education 

nance  of  the  state  over  religion,  and  for  the  formal  and 
scholastic  character  of  education.  These  conditions  also  ex- 
plain the  low  ebb  of  educational  affairs  during  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  the  fact  that  the  educational  efforts  of  the  early 
reformers  and  the  reformed  states  did  not  become  realizer 
until  late  in  the  seventeenth  or  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

This  formal,  theological  education  appeared  not.  only  in 
the  content  of  the  work  of  universities~and  higher  schools 
and  in  the  spirit  of  the  intellectual  life  in  general,  it  appeared 
also  in  the  concrete  work  of  the  schools.  Here  it  was  not 
the  actual  training  in  formal  theology  and  a  devotion  to  theo- 
logical disputation,  though  there  was  enough  of  that,  so  much 
as  it  was  the  training  in  the  old  dialectic  power,  the  power  of 
discrimination  in  form,  of  making  fine  distinctions  in  the 
meaning  of  words  and  the  accurate  use  of  abstract  terms. 
There  was  little  or  no  interest  in  content.  Thus  there  re- 
sulted the  same  emphasis  on  the  memory  and  abstract  logical 
activities  of  the  mind,  without  any  reference  to  the  inherent 
validity  of  the  material  upon  which  it  worked.1 

Humanistic  Content —  On  the  content  side  the  Reformation 
educators  accepted  the  humanistic  curriculum,  though  they 
used  it  for  a  different  purpose  than  did  the  earlier  humanistic 
educators.  This  acceptance  resulted  from  the  vital  connec- 
tion between  the  two  movements,  previously  noted,  and  from 
the  fact  that  the  mastery  of  the  classical  languages  was 
essential  for  the  purpose  of  providing  for  a  direct  study  of  the 
Scriptures  and  of  the  Fathers  in  the  originals.  Consequently, 
this  study  became  the  immediate  purpose  of  the  Protestant 
education  and  found  a  prominent  place  in  the  Protestant 
schools.  Through  the  use  of  the  catechisms,  creeds  and 
church  services,  which  characterized  all  schools  of  the  times, 
whether  in  Protestant  or  Roman  Catholic  countries,  through 
the  use  of  the  Scriptures  as  texts,  and  through  the  direction 
of  the  entire  work  of  the  school  to  the  exposition  of  Christian 

1  For  concrete  detail*  of  this  formalism,  tee  pp.  384,  391,  393-4,  525-7. 


The  Reformation 


407 


literature  and  Christian  doctrine  and  to  the  development  of 
exegetical  and  polemical  ability,  the  curriculum  received  a 
profound  religious  bias. 

Institutional  Effects.  —  One  other  great  educational  influ- 
ence of  the  Reformation,  calling  for  more  extended  notice 
later,  deserves  mention  here;  namely,  the  establishment  of 
systems  of  schools  based  upon  the  idea  of  universal  educa- 


CATECHETICAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  THE  PROTESTANT  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 

tion.  Such  systems  of  state  public  schools^  are  wholly  due 
in  their  origin  to  the  Reformation.  Their  development  and 
completion  awaited  the  growth  of  the  political  idea  that  the 
welfare  of  the  state  depends  upon  the  education  of  the 
individual  citizen.  The  basis  for  all  these  modern  svstems 
of  schools  is  found  in  the  Reformation  doctrines  that  the 
eternal  welfare  of  every  individual  depends  upon  the  appli- 
cation of  his  own  reason  to  the  revelation  contained  in  the 
Scriptures.  Consequently,  both  the  ability  to  read  the  Scrip 


408  History  of  Education 

tures  in  some  form,  the  desirability  of  reading  them  in  the 
original,  and  the  necessity  for  the  training  of  the  rational 
powers,  presented  newtasks  for  tHe  school,  and  demanded 
the  universal  and  even  compulsory  education  of  children  of 
all  classes  and  of  both  sexes.  It  is  not  maintained  that  the 
Reformation  gave  the  Bible  to  the  people  in  the  vernacular, 
:or  there  were  at  least  twenty  German  editions  before  that 
of  Luther;  nor  that  it  ^  gave  the  elementary  cchool  to  the 
people,  for  it  is  probable  that  the  actual  opportunity  for 
education  open  to  children  of  all  classes  was  greater  for  the 
century  before  the  Reformation  than  it  was  for  the  century 
afterward.  But  the  modern  practice  is  undoubtedly  an  out- 
growth of  the  principles  involved  in  the  Reformation. 

General  Effects.  —  The  religious  conception  of  education 
which  prevailed  during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies, and,  in  fact,  was  dominant  well  into  the  nineteenth, 
was  marked  by  certain  general  characteristics  in  both  Protes- 
tant and  Roman  Catholic  countries. 

The  chief  function  of  education  was  to  develop  the  reli- 
gious beliefs  and  practices,  and  the  ecclesiastical  affiliations 
and  interests  of  the  child,  for  upon  these  depended  his 
eternal  welfare.  Religious  material,  and  the  linguistic  train- 
ing necessary  for  the  use  of  such  material,  constituted  the 
bulk  of  the  subject-matter.  Such  methods  were  used  as  would 
cultivate  a  respect  for  authority  and  tradition,  and  would 
produce  a  dialectic  ability  in  exposition  and  argumentation. 
On  the  institutional  side  of  education,  the  schools  were  either 
controlled  completely  by  the  Church  or,  in  many  Protestant 
countries,  by  both  State  and  Church ;  for  even  where  the 
State  exercised  formal  control,  both  the  teaching  and  the 
direct  supervision  were  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  ecclesiastics. 

SOME  REFORMATION  EDUCATORS.  —  As  we  have  seen 
that  it  is  impossible  to  distinguish  between  the  Renaissance 
movement  and  the  Reformation  movement  in  all  of  north 


The  Reformation  409 

Europe,  so  it  is  quite  difficult  also  to  differentiate  the  human- 
istic educators  from  the  religious  educators  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  From  the  fact  that  the  new  learning  was  given  a 
reformatory  bent,  the  north  European  humanists  were  collec- 
tively responsible  for  the  Reformation  movement.  While 
many  of  them,  such  as  Erasmus,  Wimpfeling,  More  and  Rabe- 
lais, among  the  more  prominent,  refused  to  break  with  the 
Church,  and  rejected  the  violent  methods  of  the  reformers, 
they  could  not  dissociate  themselves  from  this  responsibil- 
ity. This  truth  was  put  in  a  homely  way  by  Luther,  when 
he  said  that  he  but  hatched  the  egg  laid  by  Erasmus.  To 
which  Erasmus  replied  that  the  egg  was  but  a  hen's  egg, 
while  Luther  had  hatched  a  game  cock.  So,  on  the  one  hand, 
many  of  those  prominent  as  humanistic  educators,  such  as 
Sturm,  are  quite  as  good  representatives  of  religious  as  of 
humanistic  education  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  many  of  those 
usually  considered  as  Reformation  educators,  such  as  Melanch- 
thon,  are  quite  as  thoroughly  humanistic  as  any  mentioned 
in  the  previous  chapter.  This  lack  of  definiteness  in  the 
delimitation  exists  in  other  groups  as  well.  For  example, 
Comenius,  later  taken  as  the  chief  representative  of  the  sense 
realists,  is  quite  as  truly  a  leader  in  the  educational  move- 
ment of  the  Reformation  as  either  Luther  or  Melanchthon. 
In  other  words,  the  religious  aspect  of  the  work  of  these 
educators  is  revealed  in  the  purpose  and  organization  of  edu- 
cation, while  the  humanistic  or  realistic  aspect  appears  in  the 
content  or  subject-matter.  Though  but  a  few  of  them  are 
here  mentioned  in  detail,  the  Reformation  and  the  counter- 
Reformation  movements  produced  many  great  educators  and 
leaders  of  educational  thought.  In  fact,  it  was  a  conse- 
quence of  the  character  of  the  later  Renaissance  movement 
that  all  the  religious  leaders  seized  upon  education  as  the 
chief  instrument  for  bringing  about  the  reforms  which  they 
desired.  On  the  Protestant  side,  the  great  leaders  are  natu- 
rallv  Luther  and  Melanchthon. 


410  History  of  Education 

John  Calvin  (1509-1564)  was  occupied  during  the  greater 
part  of  his  life  in  religious  and  theological  controversies. 
Only  during  his  later  years  did  he  give  especial  attention  to 
education.  He  then  organized  a  college  at  Geneva,  which  was 
little  more  than  a  typical  humanistic  Latin  school.  Later, 
these  schools  became  quite  numerous  throughout  France 
among  the  Protestant  communities.  With  the  expulsion  of  the 
Huguenots,  many  schools  of  a  similar  type,  under  the  patron- 
age or  influence  of  the  French  refugees,  were  established  in 
Germany,  as  a  type  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
Fnrstensckulen  previously  mentioned  (p.  389).  Zwingli  (1484- 
1532),  the  great  Swiss  reformer,  fostered  the  humanistic  learn- 
ing, encouraged  the  formation  of  elementary  schools,  and 
wrote  a  treatise  on  "  The  manner  of  instructing  and  bringing 
up  boys  in  a  Christian  way  "  ( 1 524).  John  Knox  ( 1 505-1 572), 
the  leader  of  the  Scotch  Reformation,  was  the  chief  agent  in 
the  establishment  of  the  parish  school  system  of  Scotland. 

Martin  Luther  (1483-1546),  the  great  protagonist  of  the 
Reformation,  assumed  the  leadership  of  the  educational  move- 
ment that  had  already  begun  in  Germany,  even  before  the 
germs  of  the  Renaissance  ideas  took  root.  This  movement 
worked  toward  the  deliverance  of  education,  through  the 
power  of  the  State,  from  the  trammels  which  by  a  gradual 
process  through  centuries  had  been  forged  for  it  by  the 
Church  ;  toward  a  wider  dissemination  of  the  opportunities 
for  education ;  and  toward  a  truer  conception  of  the  function  of 
education  in  life,  both  religious  and  secular.  All  of  these  ten- 
dencies harmonized  with  Luther's  beliefs,  and  the  success  of 
the  Reformation  necessitated  at  least  a  partial  realization  of 
them  ;  yet  all  three  had  existed  before  the  time  of  Luther. 
Beginning  with  the  last  mentioned, —  that  toward  a  broader 
view  of  the  nature  and  function  of  education, — let  us  con- 
sider Luther's  influence  in  connection  with  each  of  these 
tendencies 

l.nther's  condemnation  of  the  education  given  by  monastic 


The  Reformation  411 

and  ecclesiastical  schools  was  very  harsh.  While  the  burghei 
schools  were  now  frequent  in  the  larger  cities,  most  of  these, 
especially  those  of  an  elementary  character,  were  wholly 
dominated  by  the  teachers  and  the  spirit  of  the  Church 
schools.  The  smaller  towns  and  villages  were  quite  unpro- 
vided with  any  other  kind.  Against  their  narrow  outlook, 
ascetic  spirit,  and  harsh  discipline,  he  writes  thus :  — • 

"  Solomon  was  a  right  royal  schoolmaster.  He  does  not  for- 
bid children  from  mingling  with  the  world,  or  from  enjoying 
themselves,  as  the  monks  do  their  scholars  ;  for  they  will  thus 
become  clods  and  blockheads,  as  Anselm  likewise  perceived. 
Said  this  one :  '  a  young  man,  thus  hedged  about,  and  cut  off 
from  society,  is  like  a  young  tree,  whose  nature  it  is  to  grow 
and  bear  fruit,  planted  in  a  small  and  narrow  pot.'  For  the 
monks  have  imprisoned  the  youth  whom  they  have  had  in 
charge,  as  men  put  birds  in  dark  cages,  so  that  they  could 
neither  see  nor  converse  with  any  one.  But  it  is  dangerous 
for  youth  to  be  thus  alone,  thus  debarred  from  social  inter- 
course. Wherefore,  we  ought  to  permit  young  people  to  see, 
and  hear,  and  know  what  is  taking  place  around  them  in  the 
world,  yet  so  that  you  hold  them  under  discipline,  and  teach 
them  self-respect.  Your  monkish  strictness  is  never  produc- 
tive of  any  good  fruit.  It  is  an  excellent  thing  for  a  young 
man  to  be  frequently  in  the  society  of  others ;  yet  he  must 
be  honorably  trained  to  adhere  to  the  principles  of  integrity, 
and  to  virtue,  and  to  shun  the  contamination  of  vice.  This 
monkish  tyranny  is,  moreover,  an  absolute  injury  to  the 
young ;  for  they  stand  in  quite  as  much  need  of  pleasure 
and  recreation  as  of  eating  and  drinking ;  their  health,  too, 
will  be  firmer  and  the  more  vigorous  by  this  means." 

This  passage  gives,  not  only  his  condemnation  of  the  old, 
but  his  conception  of  the  new.  The  purpose  and  scope  of 
education  are  no  longer  to  be  dominated  solely  by  religion 
and  the  Church. 

"  Were  there  neither  soul,  heaven,  nor  hell,  it  would  be  still 
necessary  to  have  schools  for  the  sake  of  affairs  here  below, 
as  the  history  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans  plainly  teaches 


412  History  of  Education 

The  world  has  need  of  educated  men  and  women,  to  the  end 
that  the  men  may  govern  the  country  properly,  and  that  the 
women  may  properly  bring  up  their  children,  care  for  their 
domestics,  and  direct  the  affairs  of  their  households." 

Almost  every  variation  of  this  conception  of  education  as  a 
training  essential  to  the  ordinary  duties  of  life  in  the  home, 
the  occupation,  the  State  and  the  Church  receives  emphasis  in 
his  writings  or  his  sermons  to  the  German  people.  Conse- 
quently, the  family  is  looked  upon  as  an  educational  institu- 
tion not  even  secondary  to  the  school.  Education  becomes 
something  broader  than  the  school.  But  the  school  itself  is 
broader  than  that  which  then  existed,  and,  it  may  be  remarked, 
much  broader  than  those  established  by  his  followers  of  the 
sixteenth  and  the  seventeenth  centuries.  It  is  true  that 
Latin  and  Greek  constitute  the  bulk  of  the  curriculum.  To 
those  languages  he  adds  Hebrew,  and  also  attempts  to  bring 
this  linguistic  education  within  the  reach  of  all.  But  his  cur- 
riculum is  much  more  than  linguistic.  He  adds  the  logic  and 
mathematics  demanded  by  the  times,  but  lays  a  new  em- 
phasis on  history,  on  science,  as  then  conceived,  and  upon 
music.  This  latter  provision  indicates  one  of  Luther's  most 
important  influences  upon  the  German  people,  for  music  thus 
becomes,  a  component  part  of  the  education  of  all.  Gymnas- 
tics and  physical  education  are  given  a  place  new  to  German 
thought. 

The  fundamental  relation  of  the  Reformation  to  universal 
education,  has  been  noticed  previously.  Luther  quickly  seized 
this  important  point  and  insisted  upon  it  throughout  his 
teachings.  Schooling  was  to  be  brought  to  all  the  people, 
noble  and  common,  rich  and  poor ;  it  was  to  include  both  boys 
and  girls  —  a  remarkable  advance;  finally,  the  State  was  to 
use  compulsion  if  necessary.  In  this  connection  the  supple- 
mentary function  of  the  school  in  education  again  comes  to 
the  fore.  Luther  advocated  a  school  day  of  two  hours,  so 
arranged  that  it  would  allow  the  older  children  and  youth  to 


The  Reformation  413 

carry  on  the  ordinary  economic  duties  of  life  uninterruptedly. 
"  I  by  no  means  approve  of  those  schools  where  a  child  was 
accustomed  to  pass  twenty  or  thirty  years  in  studying  Donatus 
or  Alexander,  without  learning  anything.  Another  world  has 
dawned,  in  which  things  go  differently.  My  opinion  is  that 
we  must  send  the  boys  to  school  one  or  two  hours  a  day,  and 
have  them  learn  a  trade  at  home  for  the  rest  of  the  time.  It 
is  desirable  that  these  two  occupations  march  side  by  side." 
It  was  further  his  opinion  that  the  authorities  were  "  bound 
to  force  their  subjects  to  send  their  children  to  school,"  just 
as  every  subject  was  compelled  to  render  military  service  and 
for  much  the  same  reason ;  namely,  for  the  defense  and  the 
prosperity  of  the  State. 

Consequently,  education  should  be  state-supported  and 
state-controlled. 

"  In  view  of  all  this,  it  becomes  councilmen  and  magistrates 
to  watch  over  youth  with  unremitting  care  and  diligence.  For 
since  their  city,  in  all  its  interests,  life,  honor,  and  possessions, 
is  committed  to  their  faithful  keeping,  they  do  not  deal  justly 
with  their  trust,  before  God  and  the  world,  unless  they  strive 
to  their  utmost,  night  and  day,  to  promote  the  city's  increase 
and  prosperity,  Now,  a  city's  increase  consists  not  alone  in 
heaping  up  great  treasure,  in  building  solid  walls  or  stately 
houses,  or  in  multiplying  artillery,  and  munitions  of  war; 
nay,  where  there  is  a  great  store  of  this,  and  yet  fools  with  it, 
it  is  all  the  worse  and  all  the  greater  loss  for  the  city.  But 
this  is  the  best  and  the  richest  increase,  prosperity  and 
strength  of  the  city,  that  it  shall  contain  a  great  number  of 
polished,  learned,  intelligent,  honorable,  and  well-bred  citi- 
zens; who,  when  they  have  become  all  this,  may  then  get 
wealth  and  put  it  to  a  good  use." 

Therefore  as  a  city  is  at  a  great  expense  each  year  for  the 
construction  of  roads,  the  fortifying  of  ramparts,  and  the 
equipment  of  soldiers,  why  should  it  not  support  one  or  two 
schoolmasters?  The  outcome  of  Luther's  influence  in  this 
respect  was  the  building  up  of  the  system  of  schools  of  the 
Protestant  states. 


414  History  of  Education 

Luther's  view  of  the  importance  of  education  is  indicated, 
even  summarized,  by  his  appreciation  of  the  work  of  the 
teachers. 

"  Where  were  your  supply  of  preachers,  jurists,  and  physi- 
cians, if  the  arts  of  grammar  and  rhetoric  had  no  existence  ? 
These  are  the  fountain  out  of  which  they  all  flow.  I  tell  you, 
in  a  word,  that  a  diligent,  devoted  school  teacher,  preceptor, 
or  any  person,  no  matter  what  is  his  title,  who  faithfully 
trains  and  teaches  boys,  can  never  receive  an  adequate 
reward,  and  no  money  is  sufficient  to  pay  the  debt  you  owe 
him  ;  so,  too,  said  the  pagan,  Aristotle.  Yet  we  treat  them 
with  contempt,  as  if  they  were  of  no  account  whatever ;  and, 
all  the  time,  we  profess  to  be  Christians.  For  my  part,  if  I 
were  compelled  to  leave  off  preaching  and  to  enter  some 
other  vocation,  I  know  not  an  office  that  would  please  me 
better  than  that  of  schoolmaster,  or  teacher  of  boys.  For  I 
am  convinced  that,  next  to  preaching,  this  is  the  most  useful, 
and  greatly  the  best  labor  in  all  the  world,  arid,  in  fact,  I  am 
sometimes  in  doubt  which  of  the  positions  is  the  more  honor- 
able. For  you  cannot  teach  an  old  dog  new  tricks,  and  it  is 
hard  to  reform  old  sinners,  but  this  is  what  by  preaching  we 
undertake  to  do,  and  our  labor  is  often  spent  in  vain ;  but  it 
is  easy  to  bend  and  to  train  young  trees,  though  haply  in  the 
process  some  may  be  broken.  My  friend,  nowhere  on  earth 
can  you  find  a  higher  virtue  than  is  displayed  by  the  stranger, 
who  takes  your  children  and  gives  them  a  faithful  training, 
—  a  labor  which  parents  very  seldom  perform,  even  for  their 
own  offspring." 

Thus  Luther  contributed  materially  to  the  formulation  of  a 
new  and  broader  conception  of  education  and  gave  powerful 
impetus  to  practical  changes  already  initiated.  The  concrete 
work  of  carrying  these  into  effect  was  left  to  his  followers, 
chief  among  whom  was  Melanchthon. 

Philip  Melanchthon  (1479-1560)  has  been  given  the  title 
of  Preceptor  of  Germany,  for  he  was  to  Germany  in  educa- 
tional reform  what  Luther  was  in  religious  reform.  The 
educational  suggestions  which  Luther  urged  upon  the  Ger 
man  people  through  his  many  appeals  were  formulated  and 


The  Reformation  415 

carried  out  by  Melanchthon.  The  title  was  not  given  with- 
out good  reason,  for  at  his  death  there  was  scarcely  a  city 
in  all  Germany  but  had  modified  its  schools  according  to 
Melanchthon's  direct  advice  or  after  his  general  suggestions, 
and  scarcely  a  school  of  any  importance  but  numbered  some 
pupil  of  his  among  its  teachers.  Wittenberg  was  the  center 
from  which  radiated  these  influences,  united  as  they  were 
with  those  of  Luther,  for  in  the  university  there  Melanchthon 
labored  for  the  last  forty-two  years  of  his  life.  And  it  was 
in  university  circles  that  his  educational  reforms  were  first 
carried  out.  Through  his  influence  the  university  was  soon 
remodeled  along  humanistic  and  Protestant  lines.  Other 
universities  of  north  Germany  soon  imitated  these  changes, 
and  Wittenberg  was  the  model  of  the  many  new  universities 
of  Germany,  mentioned  later  (p.  417).  To  Wittenberg  flocked 
students  by  the  thousand,  drawn  by  Melanchthon's  great 
reputation  ;  and  from  Wittenberg,  in  turn,  were  sent  out 
teachers  carrying  Melanchthon's  idea  into  all  Germany.  If  a 
prince  needed  a  professor  for  his  university  or  a  city  a  rector 
for  its  schools,  Melanchthon  was  consulted  and  most  natu- 
rally one  from  his  pupils  chosen.  The  most  distinguished 
teachers  of  this  period,  such  as  Neander  and  Trotzendorf,  were 
his  pupils,  or  like  Sturm  dependent  upon  him  for  counsel. 
Not  only  through  his  pupils  did  he  exercise  leadership,  but 
through  his  correspondence  and  visitation  as  well.  His  cor- 
respondence with  fifty-six  German  cities  regarding  their 
schools  is  still  in  existence.1 

Melanchthon  often  inaugurated  these  new  schools  in  per- 
son. But  his  contact  with  the  individual  pupil  was  mainly 
through  his  many  text-books.  When  sixteen  years  of  age, 
he  wrote  the  Greek  grammar  which  later  became  almost 
universally  the  text  for  the  German  schools.  His  Latin 
grammar,  written  later,  achieved  a  similar  reputation.  His 
texts  on  dialectic,  rhetoric,  ethics,  physics,  history,  etc.,  were 

1  Hartfelder,  Melanchthonia  Padagogica. 


4 1 6  History  of  Education 

similarly  useful  in  the  lower  schools,  as  his  theology,  the  first 
of  Protestant  production,  became  the  great  text  for  Protestant 
universities  and  higher  schools. 

Through  his  formulation  of  the  Visitation  Articles  of 
Saxony  in  1528,  drawn  up  at  the  request  of  the  elector,  he 
became  the  founder  of  the  modern  public  school  system. 
The  scope  of  these  higher  schools  was  quite  restricted,  as  will 
be  seen  from  his  summary.  Among  other  things,  he  says :  — 

"  There  are  now  many  abuses  in  the  schools.  In  order 
that  the  young  may  be  properly  taught,  we  have  prepared 
this  form :  first,  the  teachers  should  see  to  it  that  the  chil- 
dren learn  only  Latin,  not  German,  or  Greek,  or  Hebrew,  as 
some  have  hitherto  done,  burdening  the  children  with  a  mul- 
tiplicity of  studies  that  were  not  only  unfruitful,  but  even 
hurtful.  It  is  also  plain  that  such  teachers  do  not  consider 
the  good  of  the  children,  but  take  up  so  many  studies  for  the 
sake  of  reputation.  Secondly,  the  teacher  should  not  burden 
the  children  with  too  many  books,  and  should,  in  every  way, 
avoid  multiplicity  in  his  instruction.  Thirdly,  it  is  necessary 
that  the  children  be  divided  into  classes." 

But  these  schools  slightly  expanded  became  the  gymnasien, 
the  central  schools  of  the  whole  German  system. 

Melanchthon's  pedagogical  writings,  consisting  as  they  do 
chiefly  of  inaugural  addresses  or  lectures  to  students  on  the 
value  of  the  study  of  literature  and  philosophy,  are  of  impor- 
tance only  as  indicating  the  content  and  spirit  of  the  human- 
istic education. 

TYPES  OF  RELIGIOUS  SCHOOLS.  — The  Reformation  in 
its  beginning  was  simply  the  Renaissance  movement  especially 
direcjed-as  it  was  toward  the  study  of  Biblical  and  patristic 
literature  and  consequently  rather  toward  Greek  and  Hebrew 
than  merely  to  Ciceronian  Latin.  Hence  it  was  in  north 
Europe-'that  the  humanistic  centers  became  Reformation 
centers  and  the  lower  humanistic  schools  the  basis  of  systems 
of  religious  schools,  both  of  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic 


The  Reformation  417 

sympathies.  The  remark  previously  made  concerning  the 
Jesuit  schools  is  applicable  for  the  most  part  to  all  of  these 
schools,  that  in  subject-matter  all  such  schools  are  strictly, 
even  narrowly,  humanistic ;  while  the  purpose  and  spirit  is 
almost  wholly  religious.  The  control  of  Protestant  schools 
becomes  vested  nominally  in  the  state,  though  the  control 
remains  practically  religious;  while  the  Roman  Catholic 
schools  are  organized  by  the  teaching  orders  or  congregations. 
The  Universities.  —  The  history  of  the  universities  of  the 
German  states  during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
is  determined  by  the  progress  of  the  Protestant  religion  and  is 
almost  identical  with  the  development  of  Protestant  theology. 
Wittenberg,  founded  in  1502  as  the  first  university  of  the 
ne\v~  learning,  became  through  the  residence  of  Luther 
and  Melah'chthon  the  very  center  of  Protestantism.  The  uni- 
versities gradually  threw  off  their  allegiance  to  the  pope  and 
transferred  it  to  the  temporal  princes.  Since  now  their  sup- 
port was  derived  from  the  favor  of  these  governments  instead 
of  from  ecclesiastical  sources,  the  control  exerted  by  the 
princes  became  determinative,  and  many  of  them  followed 
the  occasional  change  in  denominational  adherence  of  the 
reigning  families.  To  a  considerable  extent  their  support 
came  from  the  dissolution  of  old  monastic  and  ecclesiastical 
foundations.  Marburg,  founded  in  1 527,  was  the  first  of  these 
Protestant  universities,  while  Konigsberg,  Jena,  Helmstadt, 
Dorpat,  and  a  number  of  others  were  added  within  a  century. 
Within  this  same  period  seven  Roman  Catholic  universities 
were  founded  within  the  limits  of  the  German  states.  Several 
during  the  same  period  grew  out  of  gymnasien,  as  the  one  at 
Strasburg  (1621)  from  Sturm's  school,  and  the  one  at  Altdorf 
(1578)  from  a  famous  institution  at  Nuremberg.  Both  of 
these  were  Protestant.  While  the  work  in  many  of  these 
was  of  a  high  character,  and  the  influence  great,  —  Altdorf, 
for  example,  though  very  poor,  is  said  to  have  contributed 
more  to  philosophical  study  than  all  of  the  universities  of  the 


41 8  History  of  Education 

British  empire,  —  yet,  in  general,  by  the  seventeenth  centur) 
the  activities  of  these  institutions  degenerated  into  the  lifeless 
formalism  previously  mentioned.  A  German  historian  remarks 
that  the  dominant  theological  interest  "  called  into  existence 
a  dialectic  scholasticism,  which  was  in  no  way  inferior  to  that 
of  the  most  flourishing  period  of  the  Middle  Ages,  either  in  the 
greatness  or  minuteness  of  the  careful  and  acute  development 
of  its  scientific  form,  or  in  the  full  and  accurate  exhibition  of 
its  religious  contents." 

In  England  the  connection  between  the  Reformation  and 
the  universities  followed  a  similar  course.  At  Cambridge, 
where  the  Reformation  centered,  the  movement  began  early  in 
the  period,  under  the  leadership  of  Tyndale  (c.  1484-1536)  and 
Latimer  (1485-1555).  The  dissolution  of  the  monasteries 
and  friaries  which  formed  so  important  a  part  of  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  occasioned  considerable  diminution  in  power  and 
effectiveness,  which  was  gradually  offset  by  the  founding 
of  new  colleges  from  the  spoils  of  these  dissolutions  and  by 
the  founding  of  regius  professorships.  In  various  other 
ways  the  monarch  and  the  national  Church  came  to  their 
support,  but  in  time  the  degeneracy  in  the  character  of  the 
work  and  the  life  was  even  more  marked  than  in  the  German 
universities. 

Protestant  Control  of  the  Humanistic  Secondary  Schools.  — 
The  movement  toward  the  secularization  of  the  Latin  schools 
begun  in  the  fifteenth  century  was  completed  by  the  Reforma- 
tion movement  in  the  sixteenth.  This  secularization  consisted, 
not  in  purpose  and  in  character  of  study,  but  in  change  in 
control.  And  even  as  regards  control,  while  exerted  by  the 
state  or  by  the  princes,  the  dominant  motive  in  all  of  their 
actions  concerning  schools  was  the  religious  one.  The  rectors 
of  these  schools  as  well  as  many  of  their  teachers  were  Protes- 
tant leaders  or  ministers,  while  the  dominant  influence  in  the 
boards  of  control  and  visitation  was  always  exercised  by  the 
representative  of  the  Church.  The  new  schools  founded  were 


The  Reformation  419 

shaped  by  Melanchthon's  "School  Plan,"  which  was  thoroughly 
humanistic  in  the  sense  that  Erasmus  and  Luther  would 
approve;  the  purpose  was  chiefly  civil  and  religious,  rather 
than  humanitarian  in  the  broader  sense.  In  content,  little  dif- 
ference, if  any,  from  the  old  schools  can  be  discovered.  Domi- 
nantly  Latin,  a  little  Greek  and  less  mathematics  were  added. 
Since  now  these  schools  were  based  on  a  system  of  vernacular 
schools,  no  attention  was  here  paid  to  the  vernacular. 

A  more  striking  change  was  the  organization  of  these 
schools  into  systems,  through  the  cooperation  of  the  state  with 
the  municipalities.  The  first  distinctly  Protestant  gymnasium 
was  that  of  Magdeburg,  founded  from  the  union  of  the  old 
parochial  schools  in  1524.  The  following  year  Melanchthon 
drew  up  his  plan  of  a  gymnasium  for  the  school  of  Eisleben, 
the  birthplace  of  Luther.  In  1528  the  electorate  of  Saxony 
established  the  first  general  system  of  such  schools.  It  pro- 
vided for  the  founding  of  Latin  schools  on  Melanchthon's 
plan  in  all  the  towns  and  villages  of  Saxony.  The  Duchy  of 
Wurtemberg  followed  in  1559  and  the  other  German  states 
later. 

In  England  these  secondary  schools  have  not  to  this  day 
been  organized  into  a  system.  However,  they  soon  passed 
under  the  control  of  the  national  Church.  Even  before  the 
Reformation,  Dean  Colet,  in  founding  St.  Paul's,  specified  that 
the  control  should  be  in  the  hands  of  married  laymen,  the 
company  of  mercers.  His  reply  to  Erasmus  as  to  the  reason 
for  this  was  that  "  there  was  no  absolute  certainty  in  human 
affairs ;  but,  for  his  part,  he  found  less  corruption  in  such  a 
body  of  citizens  than  in  any  other  order  or  degree  of  man- 
kind." The  organization  of  these  schools  by  Henry  VIII  and 
Edward  VI  was  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  monastic 
and  ecclesiastical  control.  Each  was  placed  on  a  separate 
foundation,  but  most  of  them  were  so  organized  that  the 
masters  and  fellows,  the  teaching  and  the  controlling  bodies, 
must  be  from  the  clergy  of  the  Established  Church.  Thug 


420  History  of  Education 

they  have  remained   until   the  reforms   of  the   nineteenth 
century. 

The  Teaching  Congregations.  —  No  more  conclusive  evi- 
dence can  be  cited  of  the  effectiveness  of  the  Protestant 
schools  as  a  means  of  reforming  social  and  ecclesiastical  evils 
and  of  establishing  the  reformed  churches,  than  the  adoption 
of  the  same  means  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  In  the_ 
sense  that  other  purposes  were  more  important  and  the  edu^__ 
cational  efforts  incidental,  and  also  in  the  sense  that  the 
education  provided  was  a  preparation  for  entrance  into  the 
orders,  the  educational  efforts  of  the  old  monastic  orders 
were  wholly  subordinate.  More  important  still,  the  oli_ 
orders  were  hostile  in  their  nature  and  spirit  to  the  new  ideas 
and  methods.  The  teaching  orders  adopted  these  as  im- 
proved upon  by  the  Reformation  schools,  and  exalted  educa- 
tional effort  as  their  chief  purpose.  Until  the  early  part  of 
the  nineteenth  century  these  orders  controlled  secondary  and 
higher  education,  and  for  the  most  part  elementary  education 
in  the  Roman  Catholic  countries  of  south  Europe  and  of 
France,  and  were  quite  extensively  represented  in  the  Protes- 
tant countries  of  north  Europe.  The  strongest  and  most 
important  of  these  orders  was  that  of  the  Jesuits. 

The  Schools  of  the  Jesuit  Order.  —  The  Society  of  Jesus, 
organized  in  1 540,  became  the  chief  instrument  of  the  coun- 
te^r-Reformation  movement.  Founded  for  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  the  authority  of  the  papacy  and  extending  the 
dominion  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  it  was  directed  both 
toward  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  and  toward  the  com- 
bating of  the  Protestant  heresies.  It  is  in  this  latter  phase 
of  its  activities  that  the  order  achieved  its  chief  historical 
importance.  The  means  adopted  by  the  order  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  its  purposes  were  preaching,  confession,  and 
teaching.  While  the  practical  influence  of  the  order  and  the 
peculiar  part  played  by  it  in  the  history  of  the  two  centuries 
following  the  organization,  were  due  quite  as  much  to  the  two 


The  Reformation  421 

former  instrumentalities,  we  are  here  concerned  with  its  edu- 
cational activities  alone.  Hence  all  such  questions  as  the 
character  of  its  influences,  the  motives  inspiring  it,  the  permis- 
sibility of  its  methods,  the  interference  of  the  order  in  politi- 
cal affairs,  the  justification  of  the  suppression  of  the  order, 
are  aside  from  our  interests,  except  in  so  far  as  the  general 
purpose  and  character  of  the  order  determined  its  conception 
of  education.  Further,  it  is  possible  to  consider  the  organiza- 
tion, content,  method,  and  administration  of  its  system  of 
education  without  an  intimate  investigation  of  its  spirit  and 
purpose,  which  is  something  not  to  be  gained  from  the  study 
of  plan  and  records  or  from  the  reading  of  books.  It  is  pos- 
sible to  form  a  favorable  judgment  of  the  one  without  being 
in  accord  with  the  other.  Certain  it  is  that  *he_sjcliaols-  which 
were  the_jnost  successful  educatipnal  institutions  of  two 
hundred  years  and  educated  very  many  of  the  learned  men 
and  leaders  of  Europe  for  that  period,  were  not  without  great 
^educational  merit. 

THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  ORDER,  formulated  in  outline 
in  1540,  was  not  perfected  until  1558,  after  the  death  _of  its 
founder  Loyola.  The  constitution  consists  of  ten  parts,  the 
fourth  one  of  which  is  the  Ratio  Sttidiorum,  or  System  of 
Studies.  This,  however,  was  not  perfected  until  much  later, 
after  repeated  conferences  by  committees  of  the  order.  As 
it  took  its  final  shape  in  1599,  remaining  unchanged  until 
1832,  it  embodied  the  experience  of  the  order  through  more 
than  half  a  century  of  teaching  and  experiment  as  well  as  a 
full  consideration  of  the  experience  of  others.  For  these  men 
who  formulated  the  Ratio  were  close  students  of  the  subject 
of  education,  at  least  on  the  practical  side,  and  the  order 
possessed  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  give  that  continuous 
attention  to  the  subject  and  that  close  observation  and  experi- 
mentation covering  a  wide  scope  of  territory  and  a  multitude 
of  teachers  and  pupils,  such  as  was  possessed  by  no  other 
single  educator  or  group  of  educators.  Since  a  fundamental 


422  History  of  Education 

principle  of  the  order  was  implicit  obedience  to  authority  and 
the  Ratio  when  once  formulated  was  an  expression  of  that 
authority,  we  find  here  a  scheme  of  education  that  was  typical 
in  a  sense  that  no  other  schools  were  typical.  Their  function 

/was  to  educate,  not  for  their  order  alone,  but  to  educate  youth 
in  general,  and  to  provide  them  not  only  with  religious  educa- 
tion, but  with  the  most  advanced  secular  education  of  the  times. 
So  successfully  did  they  do  this  that  they  drew  students  very 
largely  from  the  Protestant  communions  as  well. 

The  order  had  little  interest  in  elementary  education,  and 
hence  in  the  education  of  the  masses;  it  was  dgyoted _to_the_ 
education  of  leaders,  and  consequently  was  interested  in 
higher  education.  Two  classes  of  schools  were  established, 
colleges  inferior  and  colleges  superior ;  the  former  correspond- 
ing to  the  gymnasien  and  the  latter  to  the  universities  and 
theological  seminaries.  It  was  the  policy  of  the  order  to 
establish  schools  only  when  sufficient  contribution  had  been 
made  to  insure  the  support  and  the  success  of  the  instruc- 
tion. Since  the  members  had  devoted  their  lives  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  interest  of  their  order  and  consequently 
to  educational  endeavor,  the  expense  connected  with  the  oper- 
ation of  these  schools  was  comparatively  small.  Usually  no 
tuition  was  charged,  and  in  this  respect  they  .possessed  an 
immense  advantage  over  the  corresponding  Protestant  and 
municipal  schools.  While  in  some  few  cases  schools  for  the 
nobility  were  established,  for  the  most  part  the  schools  of  the 
order  were  conducted  wholly  upon  the  principle  of  merit  and 
ability.—, 

EXTENT  OF  INFLUENCE.  —  By  the  second  quarter  of  the 
seventeenth  century  the  number  of  their  colleges  had  increased 
to  372;  by  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century  to  612 
colleges,  157  normal  schools,  24  universities,  and  200  missions. 
And  at  the  time  of  the  suppression  of  the  order,  after  the 
middle  of  that  century,  the  colleges  of  both  grades  numbered 
728.  The  attendance  upon  many  of  the  larger  of  these  col- 


The  Reformation  423 

Jeges  was  over  2000 ;  the  total  attendance  in  the  department 
of  Paris  was  over  13,000  ;  and  in  the  various  national  colleges 
at  Rome  more  than  2000.  At  the  time  of  the  suppression, 
the  order  numbered  about  22,000  members,  the  majority  of 
whom  were  devoted  to  the  work  of  education. 

ORGANIZATION.  —  One  other  cause  of  the  great  success 
of  these  schools  is  found  in  their  completeness  of  organiza- 
tion and  continuity  of  administration.  What  Sturm  did  in 
this  respect  for  one  school  with  such  remarkable  results,  the 
Jesuits  did  for  an  entire  system  of  schools  with  correspond- 
ingly wider  results.  At  the  head  of  the  order  stands  the 
general,  who  is  elected  for  life  and,  though  he  must  associate 
with  him  prominent  officers  in  advisory  capacity,  yet  he  has 
unlimited  power.  This  insures  a  stability  and  a  unity  of  action 
that  has  made  of  the  order  a  power  respected  and  feared,  and 
on  the  educational  side  has  produced  a  perfection  of  system 
unknown  elsewhere  in  educational  administration.  The  order 
is  divided  into  administrative  provinces,  each  presided  over 
by  a  provincial  responsible  directly  to  the  general.  On  the 
educational  side  are  the  rectors  of  the  various  colleges  under 
the  provincial,  but  appointed  by  the  general.  In  turn,  under 
the  rectors,  are  the  prefects  of  studies,  the  educational  super- 
visors, who  are  appointed  by  the  provincials.  The  teachers 
are  directly  supervised  by  both  rector  and  prefect,  and  the 
latter  must  make  frequent  visits  to  each  class.  This  constant 
supervision  and  the  constant  check  exercised  on  one  officer 
by  another,  as  well  as  the  preparatory  training  of  all  their 
teachers,  prevents  any  departure  from  the  established 
methods  of  government  arid  instruction  through  any  indi- 
viduality of  teachers  and  secures  an  adherence  to  the  general 
system,  once  established,  that  makes  for  a  definiteness  of 
procedure  and  a  certainty  of  results  that  is  without  parallel 
in  schools  of  that  or  subsequent  times. 

This  close  supervision,  amounting  almost  to  repression  on 
the  one  hand  and  espionage  on  the  other,  was  also  character- 


424  History  of  Education 

istic  of  the  government  of  the  pupils  in  the  schools.  Divided 
up  into  groups  under  monitors  and  into  pairs,  so  that  each 
acted  as  a  check  upon  the  other,  not  only  was  order  secured, 
but  an  obedience  to  and  respect  for  absolute  authority  that 
resulted  almost  in  an  elimination  of  individuality.  Notwith- 
standing these  characteristics  in  the  way  of  limitations,  there 
\vere  corresponding  merits  in  the  matter  of  educational  gov- 
ernment. Discipline  was  secured  through  this  ever  present 
evidence  of  authority  and  by  dependence  upon  religious 
motive,  so  that  the  great  abuse  of  corporal  punishment,  so 
characteristic,  of  the  time,  was  almost  eliminated.  Though 
sometimes  resorted  to  for  purposes  of  government,  it  never 
was  used,  as  was  ordinarily  the  case,  as  an  educational  incen- 
tive. In  place  of  resorting  to  physical  force,  the  Jesuit  teach- 
ers elaborated  in  their  characteristically  thorough  and  practical 
way  a  system  of  rewards  that  made  use  of  the  motive  of 
emulation  to  an  extent  never  before  employed. 

PREPARATION  OF  TEACHERS.  —  Yet  another  cause  of  the 
educational  success  of  the  order  was  due  to  the  thoroughness 
of  teaching  in  their  schools,  resulting  from  the  careful  prepa^ 
ration  of  picked  teachers.  The  order  itself  is  divided  into 
four  classes,  the  professed,  coadjutors,  scholastics,  and  nov- 
ices. The  novices  are  those  who  have  been  accepted  for  the 
order  after  a  partial  completion  of  the  course  of  the  college 
inferior.  They  must  then  complete  this  course  and  spend 
two  years  in  religious  preparation  for  the  order.  The  scho- 
lastics complete  the  college  superior  and  the  theological 
course  and  spend  some  six  years,  usually  before  the  theologi- 
cal course,  in  teaching  the  inferior  course.  Then  the  scho- 
lastic is  admitted  usually  into  the  rank  of  coadjutor,  where 
most  of  the  order  remain.  Many  of  the  coadjutores  spirit- 
uales  become  the  permanent  teachers  of  the  order.  Such 
teachers  must  also  receive  the  normal  training  of  the  order. 
Hence  their  teaching  force  is  made  up  for  the  most  part  of 
those  who  have  passed  through  the  rigid  course  of  the  lower 


The  Reformation  425 

and  usually  of  the  superior  college,  while  the  permanent 
teachers  who  direct  the  work  of  the  student  teachers  are 
trained  through  a  long  university  and  normal  career.  Those 
best  adapted  to  teaching  are  selected  for  this  permanent 
service. 

As  the  members  to  begin  with  are  picked  men,  chosen 
usually  on  account  of  intellectual  superiority,  the  order  ob- 
tained a  selected  body  of  teachers  far  superior  to  those  of  the 
secular  schools,  or,  in  fact,  any  schools  of  the  times.  This 
superiority  was  maintained  so  long  as  there  was  no  great 
change  in  the  spirit  and  subject-matter  of  education.  But 
when,  with  the  eighteenth  century,  there  came  to  be  a  de- 
cided movement  away  from  the  dominant  theological  spirit 
and  the  formal  humanistic  content  of  education,  the  Jesuit 
schools  tended  to  lose  much  of  their  prestige  and  superiority, 
ITtendency  which  culminated  with  the  temporary  suppression 
of  the  order.  This  suppression,  however,  was  not  due  in  any 
respect  to  the  character  of  the  work  of  the  schools,  unless  it 
was  that  their  success  in  the  education  that  still  controlled 
had  produced  strong  opposition  and  distrust. 

THE  SUBJECT-MATTER  of  the  Jesuit  schools  has  already 
been  referred  to  as  of  the  characteristic  humanistic  order. 
In  this  respect  they  did  not  differ  from  the  other  schools  of 
the  time,  either  as  to  the  scope  of  the  material  or  the  purpose 
to  be  achieved  by  its  use.  The  same  devotion  to  the  study 
of  form,  beginning  with  grammar  and  terminating  with  dia- 
lectic, the  same  effort  to  give  the  use  of  the  Ciceronian  Latin 
as  a  living  tongue,  were  to  be  found.  Only  the  Jesuit 
schools  were  superior  to  the  other  types  of  schools  in  that 
they  were  one  and  all  kept  up  to  the  high  standard  of  the 
Ratio,  while  the  greatest  variation  prevailed  among  the  schools 
under  secular  control  in  regard  to  methods,  to  the  scope  and 
the  selection  of  the  subject-matter.  More  attention  was 
given  to  mathematics  and  to  the  rudimentary  sciences,  so  far 
as  they  could  be  gained  through  the  classical  texts,  ordinarily 


420  History  of  Education 

under  the  name  of  philosophy,  than  was  usually  the  case  with 
other  schools.  This  was  true,  at  least,  so  long  as  there  was 
no  departure  from  the  ruling  abstract  theological  education, 
such  as  is  to  be  narrated  in  the  following  chapter. 

In  the  studia  superiora,  or  the  higher  colleges  and  universi- 
ties, the  full  range  of  the  university  studies,  including  the 
sciences,  philosophy,  and  the  professional  subjects  of  law  and 
medicine,  were  to  be  found.  The  studia  inferiora,  or  lower 
schools,  were  organized  into  six  classes,  —  four  devoted  to 
the  study  of  grammar,  the  fifth  to  "  humanities,"  the  sixth  to 
rhetoric.  In  the  fifth  class  the  chief  emphasis  was  on  the 
content,  and  the  histories  were  chiefly  used.  The  Ratio  studi- 
onim  took  the  attitude  common  to  all  the  educators  of  these 
centuries,  —  that  the  classical  languages  and  literatures  were 
the  adequate  means  to  universal  culture  and  effective  service 
in  society.  And  for  the  period  when  the  Ratio  was  organ- 
ized the  assumption  was  correct. 

METHOD  OF  JESUIT  INSTRUCTION.  —  The  most  distinctive 
feature  of  the  Jesuit  schools  was  found  in  their  method. 
While  the  Jesuit  teachers  wrote  many  text-books  and  texts 
even  yet  used  to  a  considerable  extent,  the  characteristic 
method  for  all  classes  was  the  oral  one.  Herein  lay  one 
other  explanation  of  their  success,  for  it  put  the  teacher  and 
taught  in  such  close  personal  contact  that  it  gave  to  their 
schools  a  molding  power  beyond  most  others.  Next  to  this 
personal  interest  and  oral  method  was  the  principje_ol. 
thoroughness  underlying  all  their  work.  Each  day's  work 
for  the  lower  classes  was  practically  one  recitation.  And 
it  was  their  rule  announced  even  in  the  Ratio,  that  but  three 
or  four  lines  be  given  for  the  day's  work  for  these  lower 
classes.  Then  frequent  reviews  were  given.  Each— day 
began  with  a  review  of  the  previous  one ;  each  week  closed 
with  a  review ;  each  year  with  a  review  of  the  year's  work ; 
and  finally  the  student  destined  for  the  order  reviewed  the 
entire  course  by  teaching  it. 


The  Reformation  42} 

Each  class  was  divided  into  groups  presided  over  by  decu- 
o  whom  the  boys  recited  under  the  general  super- 
vision of  the  master.  Another  division  was  into  groups  of 
two,  the  rivals,  by  which  means  each  boy  was  to  become  a 
corrective  and  an  incentive  to  his  companion,  and  was  to 
keep  watch  over  his  studies  as  well  as  over  his  conduct.  A 
larger  division  of  the  classes  was  into  groups  for  discussion 
concerning  points  of  the  lesson,  grammatical,  rhetorical,  his- 
torical, etc.  These  discussions  were  called  concertations. 
The  brighter  boys  were  organized  into  academies,  where  the 
concertation  became  fully  developed  dialectic  discussions. 
Themes,  essays,  translations,  discussions  of  classical  subjects, 
all  entered  here.  Membership  in  these  was  wholly  voluntary 
and  was  one  of  the  forms  of  reward  for  merit. 

The  formal  conduct  of  the  recitation  by  the  teacher  was 
termed  the  prelection,  a  modified  lecture  form.  In  the  pre- 
lection, the  first  step  was  to  give  the  general  meaning  of  the 
entire  passage ;  secondly,  the  meaning  and  construction  of 
each  clause  was  thoroughly  explained  ;  thirdly,  under  the  term 
erudition  such  information,  historical,  geographical,  archae- 
ological, as  related  to  the  passage  was  presented ;  fourthly,  the 
explanation  of  rhetorical  and  poetical  forms  with  the  rules 
were  considered ;  fifthly,  a  comparative  study  of  the  Latinity 
was  made ;  and,  finally,  moral  lessons  were  drawn.  Under 
the  third  was  introduced  almost  all  of  the  subordinate  histori- 
cal, geographical,  and  scientific  study  that  found  place  in  the 
lower  schools. 

Their  entire  work  was  based  upon  the  principle  that  it  is 
much  better  to  give  a  small  amount  in  a  thorough  manner 
than  to  give  a  rather  indefinite  impression  or  partial  mastery 
of  a  quantity.  Hence  no  single  word  was  left  without  thorough 
explanation ;  and  while  their  education  was  not  broad,  from 
the  modern  point  of  view  at  least,  it  was  very  thorough  and 
very  effective.  The  fact  that  each  master  in  his  method  had 
back  of  him  the  universal  custom  as  well  as  the  training  of  the 


428  History  of  Education 

order  gave  dignity  as  well  as  prestige  and  authority  to  the 
work  of  the  school ;  for  it  gave  confidence  to  the  master  and 
strengthened  the  receptive  attitude  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
student. 

DEFECTS  AND  DECLINE.  —  After  this  review  of  the  excep- 
tional excellence  of  the  organization  and  method  of  these 
schools,  and  of  the  usual  humanistic  curriculum,  some  expla- 
nation must  be  given  of  the  extreme  hostility  aroused  by  these 
schools  among  the  Protestants,  of  the  opposition  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  that  occasioned  the  temporary  sup- 
pression of  the  order,  and  finally  of  the  fact  that  their  impor- 
tance lies  almost  wholly  in  the  past  and  that  they  do  not 
have  the  success  or  the  prominence  now  that  they  once  had. 
To  a  large  extent  this  hostility  was  due,  as  was  also  the  sup- 
pression of  the  order,  to  the  political  activities  of  the  order 
and  consequently  to  the  opposition  of  various  governments. 
The  chief  explanation  is  not  far  to  seek :  it  is  found  in  the 
application  of  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  order,  that 
all  is  to  be  done  for  the  greater  glory  of  God  (A.M.D.G.. 
as  it  passed  into  the  usual  formula  of  the  order,  that  is*  ad 
majorem  Dei  gloriam),  as  that  was  secured  through  advanc- 
ing the  interests  of  the  Church.  In  its  application  this  means 
the  complete  subjection  of  the  individual  member  to  the  order, 
and  of  the  order  and  of  all  whom  it  educated  or  could  influ- 
ence to  the  Church.  Once  more  in  principle  as  well  as  in 
practice  the  individual  is  to  disappear  completely  before  the 
institution.  Irrespective  of  the  attitude  which  one  now 
takes  toward  such  a  principle,  the  thing  to  be  noticed  and 
the  thing  frankly  avowed  by  the  order  in  its  work,  as  it  was 
expressed  in  the  vows  of  the  members,  is  that  their  educa- 
tional scheme  was  directed  toward  this  end,  —  the  complete 
subjection  of  the  individual.  The  end  which  every  member 
of  the  order  was  bound  to  hold  constantly  in  view  in  all  his 
work  was  the  triumph  of  the  Church  over  every  hostile  force 
through  the  unquestioned  obedience  of  every  member  and  of 


The  Reformation  429 

every  individual  to  that  authority  however  expressed.    Herein 
was  a  complete  negation  of  the  principle  developed  by  the 
Renaissance.    As  Macaulay  observes,  "the  Jesuits  seemed  to 
have  found  the  point  up  to  which  intellectual  development 
could  be  carried  without  reaching  intellectual  independence." 
It  does  not  change  the  character  of  the  spirit  and  purpose  of 
such  a  school  of  education  that  on  the  content  side  it  was 
thoroughly  humanistic.     That  material  was  so  used  and  such 
methods  were  employed  that  the  results  desired  were  certain. 
We   have  previously   seen  that   the  results  were   not  far 
different  with  the  Protestant  education  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries.     The  abstract  theological  education  of 
the  times,  whether  Protestant  or  Jesuit,  was  an  exaltation  of 
authority  and  a  subordination  of  the  individual.     This,  with 
the  Protestant  denominations,  was  in  opposition  to  the  very 
principle  that  had  given. birth  to  the  Reformation  movement, 
and  hence  by  the  eighteenth  century  a  reaction  toward  the  true 
individualistic  principle  —  in  part  a  reaction  far  beyond  the 
original  Renaissance  form — occurred:  while  with  the  Jesuit 
education,  both  practice  and  principle  were  in  opposition  to 
the  new  ideals  of  the  Renaissance  period  that  were  later  to 
enter  into  the  critical,  the  philosophical,  and  finally  the  scien- 
tific advance.    Their  very  method,  perfect  as  it  was  in  its  way, 
.A        inhibited  all  initiative,  and  prevented  the  development  of  all 
.  yj    spontaneity  and  of  all  freedom  of  opinion.     Hence  the  op- 
»y}\  ,  position  and  the  subsequent  decline,  despite  the  fact  that 
.  vr   during   the   first  century  or  so  of   their  existence,  in  both 
\f      subject-matter  and  method,  they  were  ahead  of  all  rivals. 

The  fact  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  especially 
'  ..  the   Jesuit   order,  seized  upon   the  method  adopted  by  the 
«   N  Protestant  bodies  for  the  furthering  of  their  beliefs,  —  that  is 
fi    V*  education  through  schools,  —  resulted  in  the  advancement  of 
the  importance  and  the  influence  of  schools  far  beyond  what 
»y-  they,  had  ever  possessed  before. 

The  Oratory  of  Jesus  was  a  teaching  order  founded  originally 


430  History  of  Education 

in  Italy  in  1558  but  independently  in  France  in  1611.  The 
importance  of  the  order  as  a  teaching  organization  is  for  the 
most  part  confined  to  the  latter  country,  where,  after  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Jesuits,  they  came  into  general  control  of  secondary 
education.  Later  they  themselves  were  suppressed,  to  be 
refounded  in  1852,  to  meet  a  similar  fate  later.  The  schools 
were  largely  devoted  to  the  training  of  the  parochial  priesthood. 
In  spirit  and  educational  work,  the  Oratorians  were  much  less 
harsh  and  rigid,  and  devoted  more  time  to  the  vernacular  and 
scientific  studies  as  well  as  to  history  and  philosophy  than  did 
the  Jesuits.  So  much  more  liberal  were  they  in  their  views 
and  in  their  cultivation  of  individualism,  that  they  fell  under 
the  suspicion  of  the  Jansenism  of  the  Port  Royalists.  Hence 
in  many  respects  their  educational  influence  and  work  occupied 
a  middle  ground  between  that  of  the  Jesuits  and  that  of  the 
Jansenists. 

The  Port  Royal  Schools.  —  The  schools  of  this  order  attained 
their  importance  not  from  their  number  or  from  the  length 
of  time  that  they  existed,  for  they  were  few  and  had  a  career 
of  but  a  scant  twenty-four  years  (1637-1661),  but  from  their 
influence  and  from  the  fact  that  they  represented  both  in  their 
conception  of  education  and  in  their  method  a  reaction  against 
the  dominant  Jesuit  education.  Their  influence  was  wholly 
confined  to  France,  and  was  exerted  chiefly  through  the  writ- 
ings of  the  members  of  the  order  and  through  their  insistence 
upon  some  principles  that  were  far  in  advance  of  the  practice 
of  the  times.  Combined  with  these,  however,  were  other 
principles  that,  while  characteristic  of  much  of  the  religious 
education  of  that  and  succeeding  times,  were  wholly  opposed 
to  modern  educational  thought. 

Founded  by  Duvergier  de  Hauranne  (1581-1643),  better 
known  as  St.  Cyran  from  the  abbey  over  which  he  presided, 
the  work  of  the  schools  and  the  spread  of  their  educational 
doctrines  were  due  rather  to  Nicole  (1625-1695),  Lancelot 
(1615-1695),  Arnauld  (1612-1694),  Coustel  (1621-1704), 


The  Reformation  431 

Rollin  (1661-1741),  and  others,  all  of  whom  wrote  educational 
treatises  widely  circulated.  To  these  should  be  added  as 
representatives  of  these  schools  two  of  their  most  renowned 
pupils,  La  Fontaine  (1621-1695)  and  Pascal  (1623-1662), 
to  whose  Provincial  Letters  we  owe  much  of  the  publicity 
given  to  the  work  of  this  order  and  our  knowledge  of  the 
ground  of  the  popular  oppositions  to  the  Jesuit  education  of 
that  period. 

The  members  of  the  order  were  termed  Port  Royalists  from 
the  convent  where  first  the  girls  were  trained  and  to  which, 
later,  when  vacated,  St.  Cyran  moved  with  his  solitaries. 
The  term  little  schools  was  adopted  to  avoid  any  ^appear- 
ance of  opposition  to  the  university,  which  had  been  extremely 
jealous  of  the  educational  work  of  the  Jesuits,  and  to  indicate 
a  characteristic  practice,  that  of  confining  the  work  of  the 
sscliools  to  a  few  picked  children  who  could  be  influenced 
and  shaped  through  close  personal  contact  with  the  teacher. 
Individual  care  of  the  pupil  by  the  teacher  was  one  of  their 
distinguishing  marks,  though  this  was  carried  to  such  an 
extreme  that  the  child  was  never  left  free  to  himself  but 
must  be  every  hour  of  his  childhood  under  the  personal  charge 
of  his  teacher.  This  practice  grew  out  of  their  fundamental 
belief  that  the  purpose  of  education  was  to  shape  the  moral 
and  religious  character  of  the  child;  to  mold  his  will  by 
surrounding  him  with  good  influences.  The  jjrevailing 
religious  conception  in  education,  that  the  child's  nature  was 
wholly  evil  and  that  the  work  of  education  was  to  eradicate 
this  evil  and  replace  it  with  a  true  religious  spirit,  they  carried 
to  an  extreme.  This  led  to  the  adoption  of  some  methods 
of  work  that  were  far  more  restrictive  and  harsh  than 
those  used  by  the  Jesuit  order.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
motive  of  their  work  as  enunciated,  probably  for  the  first 
time,  in  all  of  their  writings  and  shown  in  their  work, 
was  that  of  the  love  of  the  child.  This  same  view  which 
led  to  so  narrow  a  conception  of  education  and  so  restric- 


432  History  of  Education 

tive  a  discipline,  on  the  other  hand  led  to  a  better  con 
ception  of  subject-matter  and  method  of  education.  Herein 
f  lies  their  practical  importance  in  the  development  of  French 
•"""^  education.  They  enunciated  the  principle  that  children  should 
be  compelled  to  study  only  that  which  they  could  under- 
stand, and  that  consequently  their  education  should  begin 
with  the  vernacular  instead  of  with  Latin.  They  discarded 
the  alphabetical  method  of  teaching  to  read  and  to  spell,  and% 
invented  a  phonic  method.  After  the  vernacular  was  mastered 
the  child  was  introduced  to  classical  literature  through  transla- 
tions. When  Latin  was  begun,  it  was  taught  through  a  mini- 
mum of  grammar  and  chiefly  through  translation  into  the 
vernacular,  then  through  reading  of  wide  selections  from  the 
classics.  The  moral  training  through  the  use  of  the  subject- 
matter  was  to  come  from  literature  instead  of  from  language. 
Hence  there  resulted  the  great  influence  of  this  small  group 
of  men  on  the  development  of  French  literature.  These 
educators  also  favored  the  use  of  mathematics.  In  all  of 
these  subjects  they  produced  the  most  serviceable  texts. 
Literature,  history,  mathematics,  were  to  be  used  on  ac- 
count of  their  content  value,  but  only  so  far  as  they  could 
be  used  in  shaping  character.  Their  thought  was  to  lay 
the  foundations  of  all  schooling  in  a  thorough  mastery  of 
the  beginnings,  but  to  make  that  mastery  as  attractive  as 
possible  to  the  pupil,  by  emphasizing  content  rather  than 
form,  by  building  on  the  understanding  rather  than  the 
memory,  and  by  a  greater  use  of  the  senses  than  had  been 
the  custom  previously.  These  advanced  principles  came  out 
more  clearly  in  their  educational  writings  than  in  their  school 
work.  The  latter  can  be  judged  best  by  the  products  of  their 
brief  career. 

As  the  Jesuits  had  made  a  great  advance  in  the  substitution 
of  emulation  instead  of  compulsion  or  fear  of  physical  violence 
as  a  motive  to  study,  the  Port  Royalists  went  a  step  farther 
in  wholly  rejecting  emulation  in  favor  of  piety  and  love  upon 


The  Reformation  433 

the  part  of  the  child  and  affection  and  religious  zeal  on  the 
part  of  the  teacher.  It  is  true  that  all  religious  schools  de- 
pended to  a  considerable  degree  upon  these  motives.  Yet 
owing  to  the  complete  elimination  of  the  srjirit  of  rivalry 
from  the  Port  Royal  Schools,  the  difference  in  spirit  from  the 
schools  of  the  Jesuits  was  very  great.  Nevertheless,  the 
former  did  admit  that  the  pupils  were  often  indifferent.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  gain  in  method  and  content  values  was 
somewhat  counterbalanced  by  the  rigid  asceticism  and  form- 
alism in  behavior  enforced  upon  little  children. 

Elementary  Schools  in  Protestant  Countries.  —  We  have 
previously  seen  that  the  chief  practical  outgrowth  of  the 
Reformation  was  in  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  schools 
controlled  and  partly  supported  by  the  State,  founded  on  the 
principle  that  it  .was  the  duty  of  the  family,  the  Church,  and 
especially  the  State  to  see  that  every  child  attended  these 
schools  and  received  at  least  an  elementary  education. 

77;<?  Public  School  System  of  the  German  States  was  the 
first  of  the  modern  type.  In  1524  the  city  of  Magdeburg 
established  its  schools  on  the  plan  advised  by  Luther.  Four 
years  later  the  elector  of  Saxony  adopted  a  plan  for  Latin 
schools  for  the  entire  electorate,  based  upon  recommendations 
of  Melanchthon.  Not  until  1559  do  we  find  a  system  of 
schools  providing  for  all  the  people.  In  that  year  the  Duke 
of  Wiirtemberg  adopted  a  plan,  though  it  was  not  approved 
by  the  State  until  1565.  This  system,  an  extension  of  the 
Saxony  plan,  provided  for  elementary  vernacular  schools  in 
every  village,  in  which  reading,  writing,  religion,  and  sacred 
music  were  to  be  taught.  The  Latin  schools  in  every  town 
and  city  were  expanded  into  six  classes,  instead  of  the  three 
of  Melanchthon's  original  plan  for  Saxony.  Above  these 
were  the  cloisteral  or  higher  Latin  schools,  which  were  later 
incorporated  with  the  lower  Latin  schools  into  the  gymnasien. 
Above  these  was  the  university  (Tubingen).  In  1580  the 
Saxony  plan  was  revised  so  as  to  incorporate  the  elementary 


434  History  of  Education 

vernacular  schools  of  the  Wiirtemberg  system.  This  code, 
borrowed  almost  word  for  word  from  the  Wiirtemberg  plan, 
remained  without  substantial  revision  until  1773.  In  1724 
it  had  been  provided  that  girls  as  well  as  boys  should  attend. 
In  1773  the  compulsory  provision  extending  from  the  fifth 
to  the  fourteenth  year  was  made  effective  and  the  scope  of 


A  TYPICAL  SIXTEENTH-CENTURY  SCHOOL. 

the  curriculum  broadened.  Meanwhile,  during  the  early 
seventeenth  century,  Weimar,  Hesse-Darmstadt,  Mecklen- 
burg, Holstein,  and  others  of  the  German  states  adopted 
systems  that  in  some  respects  were  in  advance  of  the  Wiirtem- 
berg and  Saxony  plans.  The_first  time  that  the  principle  of 
compulsory  education  for  childnnToT~Stt~dasses  was  'adopted 
by  any  state  was  by  Weimar  in  1619.  It  provided  that  all 
children,  girls  as  well  as  boys,  should  be  kept  in  school  from 


The  Reformation  435 

the  sixth  to  the  twelfth  year.  In  1642  Duke  Ernst  the  Pious 
of  Gotha,  who  more  than  any  other  ruler  deserves  the  credit 
for  the  founding  of  the  modern  system  of  German  schools, 
adopted  a  comprehensive  regulation  for  the  schools  of  the 
duchy  which  was  in  principle  and  in  many  details  sub- 
stantially the  system  of  the  German  states  at  the  present 
time.  Attendance  from  the  fifth  year  was  required  of  every 
boy  and  girl  in  the  province.  The  school  year  was  to  be  ten 
months  in  length  and  the  children  were  compelled  to  attend 
every  day.  The  school  day  was  to  be  from  nine  to  twelve  and 
from  one  to  four  every  day  in  the  week,  except  that  Wednesday 
and  Saturday  afternoons  were  free.  Parents  were  to  be  fined 
for  non-attendance  of  children.  The  subjects  of  instruction 
were  those  of  the  Wiirtemberg  plan  with  the  addition  of 
arithmetic.  The  grading  of  the  schools,  the  details  of  the 
subjects  of  study,  and  the  methods  of  instruction  were  all 
provided  for  in  the  general  law. 

The  Thirty  Years'  War  (1618-1648)  had  disastrous  influ- 
ence upon  the  development  of  the  school  systems  of  all  the 
German  states  and  it  was  not  until  the  eighteenth  century 
that  school  affairs  began  to  make  continuous  and  rapid  prog- 
ress. During  that  century  the  Prussian  school  system  de- 
veloped, though  founded  in  1648,  and  rapidly  forged  to  the 
front  in  all  educational  matters.  By  this  time,  however,  it 
was  political  rather  than  religious  consideration  that  was 
determinative  in  the  control  of  the  schools. 

No  other  people  have  even  approximated  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  German  states  in  these  respects.  Until  late 
into  the  nineteenth  century  England  left  all  educational 
effort  either  to  the  family  or  to  the  Church,  through  special 
institutions  of  the  great  public  schools,  or  through  special 
societies,  such  as  the  Society  for  the  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge  (founded  1699),  or  the  British  and  Foreign  School 
Society  (founded  1805),  the  National  Society  (1811),  and  the 
Home  and  Colonial  Infant  School  Society  (1836). 


436  History  of  Education 

In  Scotland  the  early  Reformation  period  witnessed  many 
efforts  toward  the  establishment  of  schools  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Church ;  but  it  was  not  until  1696  that  an  effec- 
tive system  was  established  through  the  cooperation  of 
Church  and  State.  At  that  time  an  act  was  passed  requiring 
the  landholders  of  each  parish  to  provide  a  schoolhouse  and 
to  support  a  schoolmaster.  In  case  the  landholders  did  not 
do  this,  the  presbytery  was  authorized  to  apply  to  the  com- 
missioners of  the  shire,  who  were  then  to  secure  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  act.  There  was  no  uniformity  required  among 
these  schools,  but  the  control  of  the  teacher  and  the  super- 
vision of  the  schools  were  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  Church. 
Many  of  those  schools  offered  secondary  instruction  as  well 
as  elementary,  and  sent  boys  directly  to  the  university.  Con- 
sequently the  Scottish  people  had  much  better  educational 
facilities  and  reached  a  higher  common  standard  of  intelli- 
gence than  any  other  portion  of  the  British  Empire.  No 
changes  of  any  importance  were  made  in  the  system  until 
the  opening  year  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  provisions 
were  made  for  more  than  one  school  in  the  larger  parishes, 
and  for  changing  the  power  of  selection  of  teachers  from 
the  Church  to  the  taxpayers.  From  this  time  on  a  system 
of  education  adequate  for  towns  as  well  as  rural  regions 
gradually  grew  up. 

In  Holland  a  system  of  elementary  schools  was  established 
under  the  auspices  of  the  reformed  churches.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  cruelly  oppressive  Spanish  wars  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  synods  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  made 
provision  for  the  education  of  the  youth.  But  it  was  not 
until  the  Synod  of  Dort(i6i8)  that  the  Church  undertook, 
in  connection  with  the  State,  the  establishment  of  a  system 
of  elementary  schools  in  every  parish.  This  system  was  as 
efficient  as  the  chaotic  condition  of  the  times  would  permit, 
and  was  the  origin  of  the  earliest  schools  in  the  American 
colonies,  for  the  Church-state  of  Holland  required  that  the 


The  Reformation  437 

respective   trading   companies   should   provide   schools   and 
churches  for  every  one  of  their  settlements. 

In  America  the  earliest  systems  of  schools,  however,  were 
in  the  Puritan  colonies  in  New  England,  and  were  there  as  well 
direct  outgrowths  of  the  Reformation  spirit.  The  first  general 
law  providing  for  schools  was  passed  in  1647  by  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay  Colony.  The  oft-quoted  preamble  to  that  law  indi- 
cates the  dominant  motive.  "  K  being  one  chief  project  of 
that  old  deluder,  Satan,  to  keep  men  from  the  knowledge  of 
the  Scriptures,  as,  in  former  times,  keeping  them  in  an  un- 
known tongue,  so  in  these  later  times,  by  persuading  them  from 
the  use  of  tongues ;  so  that  at  last  the  true  sense  and  meaning 
of  the  original  might  be  clouded  and  corrupted  with  false 
glosses  of  deceivers  ;  and  to  the  end  that  learning  may  not  be 
buried  in  the  graves  of  our  forefathers,  in  Church  and  Com- 
monwealth, the  Lord  assisting  our  endeavors  ;  "  it  was  there- 
fore ordered  that  an  elementary  school  should  be  established 
in  every  town  of  fifty  families,  and  a  Latin  school  in  every 
town  of  one  hundred  families.  In  1650  the  Connecticut 
Colony  passed  a  law  of  similar  import. 
/  Elementary  Education  in  Roman  Catholic  Countries.  —  The 
Christian  Brothers  performed  for  elementary  education,  at 
!  least  in  France  and  to  a  less  degree  in  other  Roman  Catholic 
/  communities,  the  same  service  which  the  Jesuits  did  for  sec- 
ondary education. 

The  Institute  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Christian  Schools  was 
founded  in  1684  by  Jean  Baptiste  de  la  Salle  (1651-1719), 
and  sanctioned  by  the  Papacy  in  1724.  By  the  time  of 
the  founder's  death,  the  institute  numbered  27  houses  and 
274  brothers;  by  the  opening  of  the  Revolution  122  houses 
and  800  brothers.  The  spread  of  the  institute  until  it  was 
established  in  almost  every  land,  Protestant  and  Catholic, 
was  the  work  of  the  nineteenth  century.  These  educational 
ideas  and  methods  are  set  forth  in  The  Conduct  of  ScJwbls' 
first  issued  in  1720,  The  same  exactness  of  detail,  of  repres- 


4.38  History  of  Education 


of  variation  and  of  uniformity  throughout  the  system 
that  characterized  the  Jesuit  Ratio  is  also  found  here. 

The  conception  of  education  as  well  as  the  control  exercised 
is  thoroughly  religious.  Both  in  the  control  of  the  order  and 
in  the  conduct  of  schools  the  spirit  of  asceticism  is  very  marked. 
The  most  emphasized  rule  of  the  schools  for  both  pupils  and 
teachers  was  that  of  keeping  silence.  The  teacher  is  almost 
forbidden  to  speak  at  all.  Fewest  possible  words  were  to  be 
used  by  both  teacher  and  pupil. 

Punishment  was  to  be  used  instead  of  reprimand,  signals 
instead  of  commands,  written  work  was  emphasized,  and  so 
far  as  possible  restrictive  and  repressive  measures  were  to  bo 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  child.  Contrary  to  the  practice  ol' 
the  Jesuit  schools,  and  subject  to  the  regulation  of  the  order 
and  with  the  official  instruments,  corporal  punishment  was 
resorted  to  very  freely. 

The  subjects  of  study  in  the  schools  were  the  ordinary 
elementary  curriculum  :  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  and 
religious  instruction.  Although  elementary  study  of  Latin 
was  also  provided  for  higher  grades,  instruction  .vas  to  be 
primarily  in  the  vernacular.  Tuition  provided  by  these 
schools  was  given  gratuitously,  and  in  this  respect  as  well 
as  in  the  dominant  purpose  they  resemble  the  schools  of 
the  religious  associations  of  England,  previously  mentioned. 
However  narrow  and  repressive  the  spirit  of  the  schools  and 
the  character  of  the  method  when  compared  with  the  freer 
spirit  of  the  Protestant  elementary  schools,  the  scheme  of  the 
order  was  far  superior  in  two  respects,  in  which  they  made  the 
first  general  approach  to  modern  standards.  These  were 
the  training  of  'the  teachers  and  the  grading  and  method  of 
instruction. 

One  of  the  greatest  defects  of  the  limes,  especially  of  the 
elementary  schools,  due  partly  to  taking  the  conduct  of  the 
schools  from  the  immediate  control  of  the  Church  and  partly 
to  the  unsettled  social  condition  of  the  times,  was  the  very 


The  Reformation  439 

mferioi  character  of  the  teaching  body.  No  longer  now  drawn 
from  the  clergy,  with  at  least  some  education  and  no  other 
distracting  interests,  the  teachers  in  the  elementary  schools 
were  largely  made  up  of  church  sextons,  disabled  soldiers, 
village  cobblers,  or  various  persons  whose  chief  occupations 
were  either  sedentary  or  lasting  for  part  of  the  year  only.  As 
early  as  1685  the  Christian  Brethren  opened  what  was  prob- 
ably the  first  institution  for  the  training  of  elementary  teachers. 
All  the  members  -of  the  order  were  to  be  professionally 
trained  for  their  work.  In  other  of  their  normal  schools, 
founded  later,  primary  schools  for  practice  teaching  were 
incorporated.  The  excellent  example  thus  given  waited  long 
for  any  general  imitation. 

The  improvement  made  in  the  method  of  instruction  was 
in  the  substitution  of  a  simultaneous  or  class  method  of  recita- 
tion for  the  prevailing  individual  method.  Usually,  each  child 
was  instructed  by  most  laborious  methods  in  the  alphabet, 
simple  words,  elementary  reading  and  writing,  and  rudiments 
of  all  the  elementary  branches.  Even  in  the  Jesuits'  schools, 
while  the  classes  were  divided  into  groups  under  decurions 
for  general  discussion,  each  student  finally  recited  in  person 
to  the  master.  In  some  of  the  German  gymnasien  a  plan 
similar  to  the  monitorial  system  later  developed  in  England 
was  adopted.  The  very  familiar  plan  of  class  recitation,  as  a 
systematic  method,  the  essential  feature  of  all  modern  schools, 
was  first  brought  into  general  use  by  the  Brethren  of  the 
Institute.  This  as  a  matter  of  necessity  required  a  more 
careful  grading  of  the  schools  than  the  previous  one  based 
upon  classification  of  subject-matter  only. 

SELECTED  REFERENCES 
General:  — 

Adams,  Civilization  during  the  Middle  Ages,  Chs.  XVI,  XVII. 
Beard,  Martin  Luther  and  the  Reformation  in  Germany.     (London,  1889.) 
Beard,  The  Reformation  of  the  Sixteenth  Century  in  its  Relation  to  Modern 
Thought  and  Knowledge.     (Hibbert  Lectures,  1883.) 


History  of  Education 

Cambridge  History,  The  Reformation,  Ch.  XIX.     (London,  1904.) 

Draper,  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,  Vol.  II. 

Fisher,  History  of  the  Reformation.     (New  York,  1888.) 

Francke,  Social  Forces  in  German  Literature.     (New  York,  1897.) 

Hausser,  Period  of  the  Reformation.     (New  York,  1884.) 

Jacobs,  Martin  Luther.     (New  York,  1898.) 

Janssen,  History  of  the  German  People  at  the  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages 

Vol.  I.     (St.  Louis,  1896.) 
Kostlin,  Martin  Luther.     (New  York,  1883.) 
M  oiler,  History  of  the  Christian  Church.     (London,  1892.) 
Ward,  The  Counter-Reformation.     (London,  1889.) 

Special:  — 

Barnard,  German  Teachers  and  Educators,  Chs.  III-VIII. 
Compayre",  History  of  Education,  Chs.  VI,  VII.     (Boston,  1890.) 
Drane,  Christian  Schools  and  Sclwlars,  Chs.  XX-XXIV. 
Hughes,  Loyola,  and  the  Educational  System  of  the  Jesuits.     (New  York, 

1899.) 

Laurie,  The  Development  of  Educational  Opinion,  Chs.  Ill  and  VIII. 
Mertz,  Das  Schulwesen  der  Deutschen  Reformation.     (Heidelberg,  1902  ) 
Mullinger,  The  University  of  Cambridge.     (London,  1888.) 
Nohle,  History  of  the  German  School  System.     (Rep.  U.  S.  Com.  of  Ed., 

1897-1898.) 

Painter,  History  of  Education,  pp.  153-194.     (New  York,  1904.) 
Painter,  Luther  on  Education.     (Philadelphia,  1899.) 
Quick,  Educational  Reformers,  Chs.  III-IV. 
Richard,  Philip  Melanchthon,  the  Preceptor  of  Germany.     (New  York 

1898.) 

Russell,  German  Higher  Schools,  Chs.  II-IV. 
Schwickerath,  Jesuit  Education.     (St.  Louis,  1903.) 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  INVESTIGATION 

1.  In  the  educational  or  other  writings  of  Erasmus,  Melanchthon,  or  any 
other  writer  of  this  period,  what  elements  are  humanistic  and  what  religious 
and  reformatory? 

2.  In  the  writings  of  Luther,  what  place   is  given  or  what  emphasis 
placed  on  the  right  of  individual  judgment  in  the  use  of  reason? 

3.  From  the  writings  of  Melanchthon,  Luther,  or  any  writer  of  Refor- 
mation period,  what  tendencies  to  formalism  are  discoverable? 

4.  Describe  the  method,  the  curriculum,  or  the  organization  of  any  ont 
luted  Protestant  school. 


The  Reformation 

5.  What  influences,  as  shown  by  concrete  evidence,  were  exerted  by 
Melanchthon  on  Protestant  schools?  by  Sturm? 

6.  Give  a  more  complete  analysis  of  Luther's  educational  views. 

7.  Summarize   the  arguments   of  Paulsen  (Geschichte  des   Gelehrten 
Unterrichts)  or  Mertz    (Das  Schulivesen  der  Deutschen  Reformation)^ 
concerning  the  effects  of  the  Reformation  upon  universities. 

8.  What  were    the    educational   ideas    and  activities  of  Calvin?    of 
Zwingli?   of  John  Knox? 

9.  Trace  the  beginnings  of  the  public  scho«J  system  in  Germany  and 
its  connection  with  the  Reformation  movement. 

10.  What  relation  did  the  Reformation  have  to  the  beginnings  of  public 
school  education  in  any  other  Protestant  country  ? 

11.  What  were  the  merits  and  defects  of  either  method,  curriculum, 
organization,  or  purpose  of  the  Jesuit  education  as  shown  by  a  detailed 
study  of  its  schools  ? 

12.  Of  the  Port  Royalists  ? 

13.  Of  the  schools  of  the  Christian  Brethren? 

14.  Give  an  estimate  of  the  character  and  value  of  the  educational  writ- 
ings of  the  Port  Royalists. 

15.  To  what  extent  were  the  early  schools  in  America  due  to  Reformation 
influences? 

1 6.  Through  what  sources,  English,  Dutch,  German,  etc.,  did  these 
influences  come? 

17.  What  influence  did  the  English  Reformation  movement  have  upon 
schools?     (See  Leach,  Schools  of  England  at  the  Time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, etc.) 

1 8.  What  place  should  be  given  to  religious  exercises  and  the  study  of 
religious  material  in  the  modern  public  school  system? 

19.  What  is  the  practice  of  European  schools  concerning  the  use  of 
religious  material  in  the  schools  ? 

20.  What  is  the  legal  status  of  the  use  of  the  Bible  and  of  religious 
instruction  in  the  schools  of  the  United  States? 

21.  What  are  the  arguments  of  these  religious  sects  which  believe  that 
education  should  yet  be  controlled  by  the  Church  ? 

22.  To  what  extent  are  they  valid? 

23.  To  what  extent  should  the  religious  element  enter  into  the  ideal  and 
the  process  of  education? 


CHAPTER  Vlli 
REALISTIC    EDUCATION 

WHAT  IS  REALISM?  — Though  not  usually  included 
within  the  Renaissance  period,  realism  represents  but  a  later 
and  higher  stage  of  that  movement.  As  the  Renaissance  in 
the  fifteenth  century  revealed  itself  primarily  in  ideas  of 
individual  attainment  and  effort  after  personal  culture,  and 
hence  became  chiefly  literary  and  aesthetic ;  so  the  same 
movement  in  the  sixteenth  century  became  primarily  moral, 
reformatory,  and  hence  chiefly  religious  and  political  or  social. 
In  the  seventeenthcenturyjjihrough  a  yet  further  develop- 
ment of  the  same  spirit  and  of  the  same  forces,  the  Renais- 
sance became  impersonal,  non-social,  and  directed  toward  a 
new  determination  of  reality.  Hence  it  became  philosophical 
anH  sHfintifir,  Modern  science,  which  received  its  first  for- 
mulation in  the  seventeenth  century  and  began  to  modify  edu- 
cational ideas  and  practices  in  these  tendencies  collectively 
called  realism,  is  the  full  product  of  the  Renaissance  revolu- 
tion in  thought.  This  tendency  only  begins  to  work  itself 
out  during  the  seventeenth  century.  It  has  been  well  said 
that  the  movement  of  Greek  thought  began  with  investiga- 
tion of  and  speculation  concerning  natural  phenomena  and 
developed  into  a  purely  subjective  study  of  man  ;  whereas  the 
Renaissance  movement,  since  stimulated  by  the  rediscovery  of 
Greek  thought  beginning  with  its  highest  product,  reversed 
the  process  and  began  among  the  early  humanists  of  Italy 
with  this  subjective  study  and  developed  toward  the  study  of 
natural  phenomena  and  the  formulation  of  science.  In  this 
sense  the  realism  of  the  seventeenth  century  is  but  an  earnest 

449 


Realistic  Education  443 

of  the  science  of  the  nineteenth,  educationally  as  well  as  philo 
sophically. 

Within  the  limits  of  educational  realism  a  somewhat  wider 
compass  of  thought  than  that  relating  to  the  natural  sciences 
is  included.  On  the  one  hand  realism  reached  back  to  its 
earlier  connection  with  humanism,  where  it  existed  largely  as 
a  protest  against  the  narrowing  tendencies  of  the  new  learn- 
ing as  soon  as  it  became  institutionalized ;  and  on  the  other 
hand  it  reached  forward  and  outward  as  it  shaped  a  working 
conception  of  a  practical  education,  accepted  by  many  people 
for  many  generations  without  the  basis  of  any  philosophy  or 
the  authority  of  any  schools.  This  is  the  type  to  which  the 
term  "  social-realism  "  is  here  given.  These  phases  of  realism 
were  forerunners  of  the  early  scientific  realism  and  combined 
with  it  in  varying  degrees  in  the  formulation  of  the  various 
types  of  educational  thought  characteristic  of  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  centuries.  Each  possessed  many  devotees 
and  at  least  a  few  expositors.  A  few  of  these  we  shall  notice 
in  order  to  understand  the  details  of  these  movements  of 
thought.  In  the  case  of  the  more  scientific  movement, 
termed  "sense-realism,"  the  educators  here  considered  per- 
formed a  vital  part  in  the  development  of  thought  and  in  the 
v  shaping  of  practice.  Those  considered  under  the  two  earlier 
^aspects  are  expositors  of  views  widely  accepted  and  practices 
T.  widely  current,  rather  than  formulators  of  the  new. 

HUMANISTIC-REALISM.     The    Concept  of  Education.— 

Humanistic-realism  is  the  reproduction  during  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  of  a  view  of  education  character- 
istic of  the  earlier  Renaissance  period,  now  representing  a 
protest  against  the  dominant  education  of  the  narrow  human- 
istic type.  The  humanistic-realists  and  the  narrow  classical 
humanists  agreed  in  looking  upon  the  classical  languages  and 
literature  as  the  sole  object  of  study,  or  at  least  the  sole 
means  to  an  education.  With  both  groups,  these  languages 
° 


^ 


444  History  of  Education 

and  literature  made  up  the  school  curriculum.     To  both,  these 
represented  the  highest  achievement  of  the  human  mind  and 
contained  not  only  the  widest  product  of  human  intelligence, 
but  practically  all  that  was  worthy  of  man's  attention.     Yet 
there  existed  a  fundamental  difference  in  their  purpose  of 
V  study.     We  have  previously  considered  the  purpose  and  the 
I   spirit  of  the  study  of  the  narrow  classicists  ;  an  object  wholly 
\      contained  in  the  linguistic  and  literary  studies ;  a  purpose 
\      fully  attained  with  a  mastery  in  writing  and  in  speech  of  the 
Ciceronian  Latin.     Their  object  was  to  form  young  Romans, 
\    to  produce  a  newer  Latium.     The  object  of  the  humanistic- 
'  realist,  on  the  contrary,   was  to  attain  to  a   knowledge   of 
i  human  motives,  of  human  life  in  institutions,  of  life  in  con- 
/  tact  with  nature.     But  to  them  the  realities  of  nature  were 
more  completely  mastered,  the  realities  of  institutional  life 
were  more  truly  appreciated  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans  than 
by  their  contemporaries  or  by  any  intervening  generation. 
Consequently   the   fullest   expression   of    the   opportunities, 
duties,  and  interests  of  life  was  to  be  found  in  the  classics. 
Not  only  were  they  "  in  adversity  consolatory,  in  prosperity 
pleasing  and  honorable,"  but  without  them   one  would  "be 
deprived  of  all  the  grace  of  life  and  all  the  polish  of  social 
intercourse."     Not  only  did  ancient  philosophy  contain  the 
true  philosophy  of  this  life,  but  languages  were  the  key  to 
the  real  understanding  of  the  Christian  religion.     Not  only 
did  mastery  of  these  languages  give  power  of  speech,  and 
hence  influence  over  one's  fellows ;    but  if  military  science 
was  to  be  studied,  it  could  in  no  place  be  better  searched  for 
than  in  Caesar  and   in  Xenophon  ;    was   agriculture   to   be 
practiced,   no  better  guide  was  to  be  found  than  Virgil  or 
Columella ;  was  architecture  to  be  mastered,  no  better  way 
existed  than  through  Vitruvius ;  was  geography  to  be  consid- 
ered, it  must  be  through  Mela  or  Solinus ;  was  medicine  to 
be  understood,  no  better  means  than  Celsus  existed ;  was  nat- 
ural history  to  be  appreciated,  there  was  no  more  adequate 


Realistic  Education  445 

source  of  information  than  Pliny  and  Seneca.  Aristotle  fur- 
nished the  basis  of  all  the  sciences,  Plato  of  all  philosophy, 
Cicero  of  all  institutional  life,  and  the  Church  Fathers  and  the 
Scriptures  of  all  religion. 

The  purpose  of  the  humanistic-realist  was  to  master  his 
own  environing  life,  natural  and  social,  through  a  knowledge 
of  the  broader  life  of  the  ancients  ;  but  both  could  be  gained 
only  through  a  mastery  of  the  literature  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.  Mastery  of  form  was  important  only  so  far  as  it 
was  a  key  to  reality  as  they  appreciated  it.  Study  itself  was 
not  all  of  education.  Physical,  moral,  social  development 
formed  component  parts.  The  formal  routine  of  linguistic 
discipline  gave  way  to  a  broad  and  appreciative  study  of 
literature.  It  might  even  be  necessary  to  resort  to  the  prac- 
tical study  of  life  around  one,  but  after  all  only  for  the  pur- 
pose of  a  clear  understanding  of  the  text  itself.  For,  when 
understood,  literature  was  a  safer  and  a  more  comprehensive 
guide  to  life  than  a  direct  study  of  that  life. 

Representative  Humanistic-realists.  —  Since  this  view  was 
developed  in  opposition  to  the  narrow  humanism,  it  repre- 
sented a  somewhat  later  stage  than  that  of  the  Renaissance 
leaders. 

Erasmus,  who  lived  to  see  and  to  combat  this  restrictive 
tendency,  gives  one  of  the  clearest  presentations  of  the  posi- 
tion of  the  humanistic-realist  in  his  System  of  Studies. 

"  Knowledge  seems  to  be  of  two  kinds,  that  of  things  and 
that  of  words.  That  of  words  comes  first,  that  of  things  is 
the  more  important.  But  some,  while  they  '  are  hastening  to 
marry  a  beardless  spouse,'  as  the  saying  is,  in  learning  things, 
overlook  a  care  for  words  and  ill-advisedly  trying  to  save 
time  fall  into  the  greatest  waste.  For  indeed  since  things 
are  not  recognized  save  by  means  of  signs  of  the  voice,  one 
who  is  not  versed  in  the  power  of  speech,  also  blindly  gropes 
about  here  and  there  in  the  judgment  of  things ;  thus  he  is 
misled  and  necessarily  makes  mistakes.  Finally  you  may  see 
that  none  are  more  apt  to  quibble  at  little  turns  of  speech 


446  History  of  Education 

than  those  who  make  the  boast  that  they  overlook  the  words 
in  considering  the  thing  itself.  Wherefore  in  each  class  the 
best  ought  to  be  learned  at  once  and  also  from  the  best 
masters.  For  what  is  more  foolish  than  with  great  pains  to 
learn  something  which  afterward  you  will  be  compelled  with 
greater  pains  to  unlearn.  Nothing  moreover  is  more  easily 
learned  than  that  which  is  right  and  true.  But  bad  things,  if 
once  they  stick  in  the  mind,  it  is  wonderful  to  tell,  how  hardly 
they  can  be  torn  out.  So  then  grammar  claims  first  place 
and  should  be  taught  to  youth  in  both  Greek  and  Latin.  .  .  . 
Having  acquired  the  ability  to  speak,  if  not  volubly,  cer- 
tainly with  correctness,  next  the  mind  must  be  directed  to  the 
knowledge  of  things.  For  although  from  these  very  authors, 
whom  we  have  read  for  the  sake  of  improving  our  language, 
incidentally,  in  no  small  degree  is  a  knowledge  of  things 
gathered,  still  from  the  very  first  principles  almost  the 
whole  knowledge  of  things  is  to  be  sought  from  the  Greek 
authors." 

Erasmus,  however,  is  too  broad  to  be  classified  by  views  ex- 
pressed in  this  one  writing.  The  representative  humanistic- 
realists  are  of  at  least  a  generation  or  even  a  century  later. 

Rabelais  (1483-1553)  is  the  better  exponent  of  this  view 
and  the  one  most  usually  taken.  The  educational  importance 
of  Rabelais  comes,  not  from  any  immediate  and  concrete  in- 
fluence on  schools,  but  from  the  influence  his  ideas  exerted 
upon  Montaigne,  Locke,  and  Rousseau. 

A  monk,  though  expelled  from  one  order  and  in  constant 
hostility  with  the  Dominicans  to  whom  he  later  belonged ;  a 
curt,  though  in  open  hostility  to  the  Church  for  the  most  of 
his  life  ;  a  physician,  though  a  scorner  of  false  scientific  ideas 
and  practices  of  the  times;  a  university  man  and  scholar, 
though  a  trenchant  satirist  on  the  humanistic  tendencies  and 
the  learning  of  his  time,  Rabelais's  great  work  consisted  in 
combating  the  formal,  insincere,  shallow  life  of  the  period, 
whether  in  State  or  Church  or  school  This  satire,  couched  in 
most  violent  and  exaggerated  form,  yet  contains  the  truth  of 
most  of  the  reformatory  aspirations  of  the  sixteenth  century. 


Realistic  Education  447 

Consequently,  the  dominant  education  of  words,  instead  of 
realities,  —  realities  of  life,  not  necessarily  of  the  senses,  — 
meets  his  most  forceful  condemnation.  In  place  of  the  old 
linguistic  and  formal  literary  education  he  advocates  one  in- 
cluding social,  moral,  religious,  and  physical  elements ;  one 
that  will  lead  to  freedom  of  thought  and  of  action  instead  of 
the  complacent  dependence  on  authority,  whether  of  School- 
men, classicists,  or  Church.  His  training  in  medicine  led  him  to 
give  unusual  emphasis  to  the  developing  sciences.  It  is  true, 
according  to  his  views,  that  almost  all  of  education  was  to 
be  gained  through  books  ;  but  it  was  through  mastery  of  their 
contents  and  for  practical  service  in  life.  Studies  were  to  be 
made  pleasant ;  games  and  sports  were  to  be  used  for  this 
purpose  as  well  as  for  their  usefulness  in  the  physical  devel- 
opment of  the  child  and  for  their  practical  bearing  on  his 
duties  later  in  life ;  attractive  rather  than  compulsory  means 
were  favored.  In  the  closing  part  of  a  letter  from  the  giant 
Garguantua  to  his  son,  the  hero  of  the  satire,  concerning  his 
education,  the  entire  scope  of  his  teachings  can  be  given. 

"  I  intend,  and  will  have  it  so,  that  thou  learn  the  languages 
perfectly.  First  of  all,  the  Greek,  as  Quintilian  will  have  it ; 
secondly,  the  Latin  ;  and  then  the  Hebrew,  for  the  holy  Scrip- 
ture's sake.  And  then  the  Chaldee  and  Arabic  likewise.  And 
that  thou  frame  thy  style  in  Greek,  in  imitation  of  Plato ;  and 
for  the  Latin,  after  Cicero.  Let  there  be  no  history  which 
thou  shalt  not  have  ready  in  thy  memory ;  and  to  help  thee 
therein,  the  books  of  cosmography  will  be  very  conducible. 
Of  the  liberal  arts  of  geometry,  arithmetic,  and  music,  I  gave 
thee  some  taste  when  thou  wert  yet  little,  and  not  above  five 
or  six  years  old  ;  proceed  further  in  them  and  learn  the  re- 
mainder if  thou  canst.  As  for  astronomy,  study  all  the  rules 
thereof ;  let  pass  nevertheless  the  divining  and  judicial  astrol- 
ogy, and  the  art  of  Lullius,  as  being  nothing  else  but  plain 
cheats  and  vanities.  As  for  the  civil  law,  of  that  I  would 
have  thee  to  know  the  texts  by  heart,  and  then  to  compare 
them  with  philosophy. 

"  Now  in  matter  of  the  knowledge  of  the  works  of  nature, 


448  History  of  Education 

I  would  have  thee  to  study  that  exactly ;  so  that  there  be  no 
sea,  river,  or  fountain,  of  which  thou  dost  not  know  the  fishes , 
all  the  fowls  of  the  air ;  all  the  several  kinds  of  shrubs  and 
trees,  whether  in  forest  or  orchard ;  all  the  sorts  of  herbs  and 
flowers  that  grow  upon  the  ground;  all  the  various  metals 
that  are  hid  within  the  bowels  of  the  earth  ;  together  with 
all  the  diversity  of  precious  stones  that  are  to  be  seen  in  the 
Orient  and  south  parts  of  the  world  ;  let  nothing  of  all  these 
be  hidden  from  thee.  Then  fail  not  most  carefully  to  peruse 
the  books  of  the  great  Arabian  and  Latin  physicians ;  not 
despising  the  Talmudists  and  Cabalists ;  and  by  frequent 
anatomies  get  thee  the  perfect  knowledge  of  the  microcosm, 
which  is  man.  And  at  some  hours  of  the  day  apply  thy  mind 
to  the  study  of  the  holy  Scriptures  :  first  in  Greek,  the  New 
Testament  with  the  Epistles  of  the  Apostles ;  and  then  the 
Old  Testament,  in  Hebrew.  In  brief,  let  me  see  thee  an 
abyss  and  bottomless  pit  of  knowledge :  for  from  hence- 
forward, as  thou  growest  great  and  becomest  a  man,  thou 
must  part  from  this  tranquillity  and  rest  of  study  ;  thou  must 
learn  chivalry,  warfare,  and  the  exercise  of  the  field,  the 
better  thereby  to  defend  our  house  and  our  friends  and  to  suc- 
cour and  protect  them  at  all  their  needs  against  the  invasion 
and  assaults  of  evil-doers.  Furthermore  I  will  that  very 
shortly  thou  try  how  much  thou  hast  profited,  which  thou  canst 
not  better  do  than  by  maintaining  publicly  theses  and  con- 
clusions in  all  arts,  against  all  persons  whatsoever,  and  by 
haunting  the  company  of  learned  men,  both  at  Paris  and 
otherwhere." 

To  this  elaborate  analysis  of  the  humanistic-realist  concep- 
tion, Rabelais  adds  an  exposition  of  the  physical,  social,  moral, 
and  religious  elements  in  education  in  the  best  Renaissance 
spirit.  In  regard  to  his  educational  views,  though  quite  at 
variance  with  the  remainder  of  his  writings  and  with  his  repu- 
tation, Rabelais  is  to  be  classed  with  those  early  humanists 
who  sought  to  reestablish  the  broadest  conception  of  the 
liberal  education. 

John  Milton  (1608-1674),  the  poet,  published  in  1644  a 
brief  Tractate  on  Education  which  remains  one  of  the  best 
expressions  of  the  views  of  the  humanistic-realists.  His  ob- 


Realistic  Education  449 

jections  to  the  dominant  education  were,  first,  against  the 
methods  of  approaching  the  subject  through  formal  grammar 
and  no  less  formal  exercises  in  composition ;  secondly,  grant- 
ing that  this  evil  should  be  removed,  a  greater  one  existed  in 
the  custom  of  directing  the  entire  attention  of  the  student  to 
the  mastery  of  the  formal  side  of  the  language,  without  any 
attention  to  the  literary  or  content  side.  Again,  granting  an 
improvement  in  this  respect,  a  final  objection  was  that  all  of 
education  was  not  contained  in  the  languages  and  literature 
of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 

Milton's  view  of  the  purpose  and  nature  of  education  is 
concisely  given  in  a  brief  paragraph :  — 

"The  end  of  learning,"  he  says,  "is  to  repair  the  ruins 
of  our  first  parents  by  regaining  to  know  God  aright,  and 
out  of  that  knowledge  to  love  him,  to  imitate  him,  to  be  like 
him,  as  we  may  the  nearest  by  possessing  our  souls  of  true 
virtue,  which  being  united  to  the  heavenly  grace  of  faith 
makes  up  the  highest  perfection.  But  because  our  under- 
standing cannot  in  this  body  found  itself  but  on  sensible 
things,  nor  arrive  so  clearly  to  the  knowledge  of  God  and 
things  invisible,  as  by  orderly  conning  over  the  visible  and 
'nferior  creature,  the  same  method  is  necessarily  to  be  fol- 
lowed in  all  discreet  teaching.  And  seeing  every  nation 
affords  not  experience  and  tradition  enough  for  all  kind  of 
learning,  therefore,  we  are  chiefly  taught  the  languages  of 
those  people  who  have  at  any  time  been  most  industrious 
after  wisdom;  so  that  language  is  but  the  instrument  con- 
veying to  us  things  useful  to  be  known.  And  though  a  lin- 
guist should  pride  himself  to  have  all  the  tongues  that  Babel 
cleft  the  world  into,  yet,  if  he  have  not  studied  the  solid 
things  in  them  as  well  as  the  words  and  lexicons,  he  were 
nothing  so  much  to  be  esteemed  a  learned  man,  as  any 
yeoman  or  tradesman  competently  wise  in  his  mother  dialect 
only." 

The  final  purpose  of  education  is  given  by  the  dominant 
religious  motives  of  the  time;  the  content  represents  the 
broader  humanistic  conception  of  the  great  poet;  but  the 


450  History  of  Education 

purpose  and  method  of  the  use  of  that  content  is  the  realistic 
one. 

There  follows  a  truly  marvelous  analysis  of  the  work  of 
the  school  that  is  to  provide  for  the  boy's  education  from 
twelve  to  twenty-one.  For  the  first  year  the  boy  is  to  receive 
the  usual  training  in  Latin  grammar,  together  with  arith- 
metic, geometry,  and  moral  training.  Then  follows  the  study 
of  agriculture  through  Cato,  Columella,  Varro ;  of  physiology, 
through  Aristotle  and  Theophrastus  ;  of  architecture  through 
Vitruvius  ;  of  natural  philosophy  through  Seneca  and  Pliny : 
of  geography  through  Mela  and  Solinus ;  of  medicine  through 
Celsus.  This  study  of  the  natural  and  mathematical  sciences 
is  to  be  supplemented  by  reading  the  poets  who  treated  of 
cognate  subjects.  This  list  included  such  as  Orpheus,  Hesiod, 
Theocritus,  Aratus,  Nicander,  Oppian,  Dionysius,  Lucretius, 
Manilius,  Virgil,  and  others.  Thus  the  Greek  and  Latin 
languages  were  to  be  learned  wholly  incidentally  to  the  mas- 
tery of  the  confent  of  the  literature.  In  the  following  stages, 
ethics,  economics,  politics,  history,  theology,  Church  history, 
logic,  rhetoric,  composition,  oratory,  were  to  be  mastered 
through  the  appropriate  authors.  In  this  manner,  the  politi- 
cal orations  and  treatises,  the  tragedies,  the  histories,  the 
poetry  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  were  given  place  in  this 
capacious  programme.  And  not  in  the  Greek  and  Latin 
only,  for  all  of  this  necessitated  the  command  of  Hebrew, 
Chaldee,  Syriac,  and  Italian  acquired  "at  any  odd  hour." 
The  prodigious  scope  of  school  work  which  Rabelais  sug- 
gested in  jest  or  for  the  race  was  incorporated  by  Milton 
into  the  programme  of  a  school. 

The  first  comment  that  arises  is  that  of  the  impossibility  of 
accomplishment,  except,  as  has  been  suggested,  to  a  college 
of  Miltons.  Beyond  this,  the  plan  has  the  limitation  of  the 
humanistic-realist  view  ;  it  is  an  education  of  information,  and 
that  gained  from  books ;  an  education  in  which  both  informa- 
tion and  books  are  overvalued.  Yet  on  the  other  hand,  since  it 


Realistic  Education  451 

places  substance  before  form,  thought  above  words,  practical 
efficiency  in  life  above  showy  accomplishments,  it  is  a  much 
broader  view  than  the  dominant,  formal,  linguistic  one. 

In  the  organization  and  arrangement  of  the  school,  as  well 
as  in  the  content  and  method  of  its  work  as  further  described 
by  Milton,  there  entered  much  of  the  rigidity  that  came  rather 
from  his  Puritan  sympathies  than  from  any  relation  which 
such  views  might  have  with  the  realistic  tendency.  One  per- 
manent contribution  made  by  Milton  to  education  is  found  in 
the  notable  definition  which  he  formulated.  While  the  form 
is  that  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  spirit  is  that  of  all 
times.  "  I  call  therefore,"  he  says,  "  a  complete  and  gener- 
ous Education  that  which  fits  a  man  to  perform,  justly,  skill- 
fully, and  magnanimously  all  the  offices  both  private  and 
public  of  Peace  and  War." 

The  Effect  of  Humanistic-realism  on  School  Work  is  neces- 
sarily a  thing  which  cannot  be  estimated  or  traced.  It  was 
not  characterized  by  any  great  external  difference  from  the 
dominant,  humanism  either  in  content  or  method ;  certainly 
not  by  any  difference  in  organization  or  administration.  Its 
direct  influence  on  schools  was  only  that  exerted  by  individual 
teachers  and  individual  programmes.  Rare  teachers  and 
infrequent  schools  kept  alive  these  traditions ;  but  the  domi- 
nant classicism  overshadowed  all  other  tendencies  in  school 
work.  Naturally,  since  with  the  higher  stages  the  formal 
language  was  at  least  mastered,  the  realistic  spirit  flourished 
more  in  the  universities  than  in  the  lower  schools.  Yet  the 
dominant  character  of  the  work  of  these  higher  institutions 
was,  as  has  been  previously  noted,  formal,  artificial,  and  more 
or  less  perfunctory  and  traditional.  The  chief  importance  of 
humanistic  realism  is  that  it  led  directly  to  the  sense-real- 
ism that  soon  found  a  place  in  organized  educational  work. 

SOCIAL-REALISM.  The  Educational  Concept.  —  This  term 
"  social-realism  "  is  adopted  to  indicate  a  view  of  education 


4.52  History  of  Education 

held  by  various  educators  in  previous  centuries,  but  more 
generally  accepted  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  and  then  also  most  clearly  expressed  in  theory. 
This  view  found  its  basis  in  the  Renaissance,  though  its  advo- 
cates looked  upon  the  humanistic  culture  at  its  best  as  an  inade- 
quate preparation  for  the  life  of  the  gentleman,  that  is,  for  the 
educated  man.  Its  great  representative,  Montaigne,  said  in 
this  connection  :  "  If  the  mind  be  not  better  disposed  by 
education,  if  the  judgment  be  not  better  settled,  I  had  much 
rather  my  scholar  had  spent  his  time  at  tennis.  ...  Do  but 
observe  him  when  he  comes  back  from  school,  after  fifteen 
or  sixteen  years  that  he  has  been  there  ;  there  is  nothing  so 
awkward  and  maladroit,  so  unfit  for  company  and  employ- 
ment ;  and  all  that  you  shall  find  he  has  got  is,  that  his  Latin 
and  Greek  have  only  made  him  a  greater  and  more  conceited 
coxcomb  than  when  he  went  from  home." 

Education  should  shape  the  judgment  and  the  disposition 
so  as  to  secure  for  the  youth  a  successful  and  pleasurable 
career  in  life.  This  view  regarded  education,  in  the  frankest 
and  most  utilitarian  manner,  as  the  direct  preparation  for  the 
life  of  the  "  man  of  the  world."  Holding  a  view  as  far  as 
possible  from  a  high  idealism,  or  a  rigid  asceticism,  or  a  fervid 
emotionalism,  these  educators  looked  with  unconcealed 
skepticism  upon  the  ordinary  routine  of  the  school  and  the 
accepted  deification  of  the  humanists'  studies.  To  them, 
education  should  be  a  frank  preparation  for  a  practical,  serv- 
iceable, successful,  happy  career  of  a  man  of  affairs  in  a 
civilization  formal  enough  in  its  pretenses,  but  not  over  rigid 
in  its  standard  of  conduct.  To  them  education  was  to  cul- 
minate, if  it  was  not  chiefly  to  consist  in,  an  extensive  period 
of  travel  for  the  sake  of  acquiring  experience  and  familiarity 
with  men  and  customs.  Through  travel  one  would  acquire 
practical  knowledge  and  the  culture  which  comes  from  actual 
contact  with  places  and  people  made  familiar  through  literary 
study.  With  the  social-realists,  however,  this  view  usurped 
practically  the  entire  scope  of  education. 


Realistic  Education  453 

With  many  writers  throughout  the  course  of  the  history 
of  education,  one  finds  an  acceptance  of  the  view  that  a 
period  of  travel  and  the  consequent  broadening  of  one's 
views  and  one's  experience  form  the  proper  conclusion  of 
a  long  course  of  study.  After  the  practice  of  sending 
Roman  youths  to  Greece  to  complete  their  education  had 
become  quite  common,  Quintilian  discusses  this  question. 
Ascham  devotes  a  considerable  portion  of  his  Schoolmaster 
to  a  condemnation  of  this  practice  and  this  conception  of 
education  which  was  quite  common  among  the  gentry.  In 
general,  he  objects  that  "  Learning  teaches  more  in  one  year 
than  experience  in  twenty ;  and  learning  teaches  safely, 
when  experience  maketh  more  miserable  than  wise."  In  the 
concrete,  his  objections  are  that  "a  young  gentleman,  thus 
bred  up  in  this  goodly  school,  to  learn  the  next  and  ready 
way  to  sin,  to  have  a  busy  head,  a  factious  heart,  a  talkative 
tongue,  fed  with  a  discoursing  of  factions,  led  to  contemn 
God  and  his  religion,  shall  come  home  into  England  but  very 
ill-taught,  either  to  be  an  honest  man  himself,  a  quiet  subject 
to  his  prince,  or  willing  to  serve  God  under  obedience  of 
honest  living."  This  conservative  English  view  of  the  result 
of  grafting  Italian  and  worldly  culture  on  the  native  English 
robustness  was  not  the  common  one  among  the  gentry — • 
who  alone  as  a  class  provided  an  education  for  their  children. 
This  is  one  side  only  of  the  picture.  Hear  Montaigne 
describe  the  other. 

"  That  he  may  whet  and  sharpen  his  wits  by  rubbing  them 
upon  those  of  others,  I  would  have  a  boy  sent  abroad  very 
young.  .  .  .  This  great  world,  which  some  multiply  as  sev- 
eral species  under  one  genus,  is  the  true  mirror  wherein  we 
must  look  in  order  to  know  ourselves,  as  we  should.  In 
short  I  would  have  this  to  be  the  book  my  young  gentleman 
should  study  with  most  attention.  Many  strange  humours, 
many  sects,  many  judgments,  opinions,  laws,  and  customs,  teach 
us  to  judge  rightly  of  our  own  actions,  to  correct  our  faults, 
anu  to  inform  our  understanding  which  is  no  trivial  lesson.  .  . . 


454  History  of  Education 

In  these  examples  a  man  shall  learn  what  it  is  to  know,  and 
what  it  is  to  be  ignorant;  what  ought  to  be  the  end  and 
design  of  study;  what  valour,  temperance,  and  justice  are; 
what  difference  there  is  between  ambition  and  avarice,  bond- 
age and  freedom,  license  and  liberty  ;  by  what  token  a  man 
may  know  true  and  solid  content ;  to  what  extent  one  may 
fear  and  apprehend  death,  pain,  or  disgrace,  'Et  quo  qnemque 
modo  fugiasqne  ferasque  laborem.  (And  how  one  may  avoid, 
or  endure  each  hardship.)'  He  shall  also  learn  what  secret 
springs  move  us,  and  the  reason  of  our  various  irresolutions ; 
for,  I  think,  the  first  doctrines  with  which  one  seasons  his 
understanding  ought  to  be  those  that  rule  his  manners  and 
direct  his  sense ;  that  teach  him  to  know  himself,  how  to  live 
and  how  to  die  well.  Among  the  liberal  studies  let  us  begin 
with  those  which  make  us  free  ;  not  that  they  do  not  all  serve 
in  some  measure  to  the  instruction  and  use  of  life,  as  do  all 
other  things,  but  let  us  make  choice  of  those  which  directly 
and  professedly  serve  to  that  end.  If  we  were  once  able  to 
restrain  the  offices  of  human  life  within  their  just  and  natural 
limits,  we  should  find  that  most  of  the  subjects  now  taught 
are  of  no  great  use  to  us ;  and  even  in  those  that  are  useful 
there  are  many  points  it  would  be  better  to  leave  alone,  and. 
following  Socrates'  direction,  limit  our  studies  to  those  of  real 
utility." 

Studies  are  not  condemned,  but  they  are  subordinated. 
They  become  but  means,  partial  and  insufficient  at  best,  to  an 
end  which  lies  wholly  beyond  and  without  them.  The  end  is 
found  in  character,  the  practical,  successful,  efficient,  useful 
and  happy  life  of  action.  In  this  sense  the  ideal  is  a  moral, 
not  an  intellectual  one ;  but  it  is  moral  in  a  matter  of  fact,  utili- 
tarian sense.  Herein  the  Renaissance  conception  of  education 
is  exalted ;  but  the  Renaissance  means  to  that  end  is  rejected, 
just  as  in  the  narrow  humanistic  education  the  means  was 
accepted  but  the  end  unappreciated  and  neglected.  But  as 
the  one  exaggerated  the  means,  so  the  other  drew  the  concep- 
tion of  character  out  of  proportion.  It  was  drawn  rather  to 
the  scale  of  the  individual ;  the  worth,  the  success,  the  prac- 
ticability of  this  training  and  of  this  life  tended  to  be  an  indi 


Realistic  Education  455 

vidualistic  one.  Education  in  its  method  was  to  be  made 
pleasant  to  the  individual ;  in  its  content  was  to  be  immedi- 
ately serviceable  to  the  individual ;  in  its  outcome  was  to 
equip  him  with  good  practical  judgment  for  the  affairs  of 
life  and  with  enough  of  learning  and  of  the  amenities  of 
culture  for  the  enjoyment  of  leisure  hours. 

Social-realism  was  a  type  of  education  not  to  be  found 
widely  represented  in  the  schools.  They  were  too  much 
given  up  to  grammar  and  rhetoric  to  think  much  of  use- 
ful and  happy  lives ;  too  much  devoted  to  cramming  the 
memory  to  think  of  training  the  judgment.  This  type  of 
realism  rather  expressed  an  educational  practice :  one  com- 
mon with  the  upper  classes  of  society  for  these  centuries  in 
most  European  countries.  A  course  in  foreign  schools  was 
one  form  adopted,  if  expense  forbade  extensive  travel  with 
a  tutor.  But  it  is  a  conception  of  education  which  found 
a  presentation  in  educational  writings,  and  claims  as  its  chief 
representative  one  of  the  most  charming  writers  of  any  age 
and  certainly  one  of  the  most  lovable  of  "  pedagogues." 

Michael  de  Montaigne  (1533-1592)  presents  in  his  essays 
Of  Pedantry,  Of  the  Education  of  Children,  and  Of  the  Af- 
fection of  Fathers  to  their  Children  the  clearest  expression  of 
this  view  of  education.  Considerable  difficulty  is  experi- 
enced in  classifying  Montaigne  as  an  educational  theorist. 
Professor  Laurie  holds  that  he  is  a  humanist ;  Mr.  Quick, 
that  he  is  a  realist;  many  other  educational  students  classify 
him  as  a  naturalist.  By  some  he  is  grouped  with  Rabelais, 
by  others  with  Bacon  and  Comenius,  by  others  with  Locke, 
and  yet  by  others  with  Rousseau.  The  truth  is  that  no  two 
of  these  men  can  be  grouped  together  in  all  their  views, 
and  on  the  other  hand  some  ideas  are  common  to  them  all. 
Montaigne  does  possess  points  of  similarity  with  each  of  these, 
and  yet  differs  greatly  from  each  in  some  important  respects. 
The  sum  of  those  differences  constitutes  the  best  character 
ization  of  that  view  of  education  here  termed  social-realism 


4.56  History  of  Education 

The  truth  is  that  Montaigne  as  a  skeptic  refuses  to  sub 
scribe  to  any  doctrine  save  that  all  of  these  authoritative 
views  of  education,  as  well  as  of  every  other  aspect  of  life 
and  thought,  are  to  be  doubted.  But  while  in  regard  to 
most  subjects  his  views  are  wholly  of  that  negative  char- 
acter he  has  some  positive  view  regarding  education. 

MONTAIGNE  NOT  A  HUMANIST.  —  Montaigne  lived  at  the 
height  of  the  literary  movement  in  France,  during  which 
time  the  devotion  to  the  rather  narrow  classicism  was  carried 
to  an  extreme.  Montaigne  himself  shared  in  the  common 
practice  of  making  reference  in  almost  every  sentence  to  the 
ideas  or  words  of  some  of  the  ancients  and  thus  making  a 
parade  of  learning.  But  against  this  very  practice,  at  least 
as  an  ideal  of  education,  he  inveighed.  He  granted  that  a 
certain  amount  of  this  knowledge  was  desirable,  that  "one 
should  taste  the  upper  crust  of  science,"  but  after  all  merely 
as  an  accomplishment  always  to  be  distinguished  from  edu- 
cation itself.  He  inveighed  constantly  against  this  miscon- 
ception of  knowledge  and  of  education.  "We  can  say, 
Cicero  speaks  thus  ;  these  were  the  ideas  of  Plato  ;  these  are 
the  very  words  of  Aristotle.  A  parrot  could  say  as  much. 
But  what  do  we  say  that  is  our  own  ?  What  can  we  do  ? 
How  do  we  judge  ? "  Such  knowledge  is  "  like  counterfeit 
coin,  of  no  other  use  or  value  but  as  counters  to  reckon  with 
or  set  up  at  cards."  For  the  knowledge  that  came  through 
books  and  was  primarily  of  books,  the  greatest  scorn  was 
expressed,  since  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  real  life  of  the 
individual.  "  A  misuse  enriched  with  the  knowledge  of  so 
many  things  does  not  become  ready  and  sprightly.  A  vulgar 
understanding  can  exist  by  the  side  of  all  the  reasoning  and 
judgment  the  world  has  collected  and  stored  up  without 
benefit  thereby." 

And  again  he  says,  in  reference  to  the  education  in  words 
then  prevalent :  "  The  world  is  much  given  to  babbling  :  I 
hardly  ever  saw  a  man  who  did  not  rather  prate  too  much. 


Realistic  Education  457 

than  speak  too  little.  Yet  the  half  of  our  life  goes  in  this 
way."  Consequently  the  education  favored  is  far  removed 
from  the  dominant  classicism  and  pedantry.  "  I  would  not 
have  this  pupil  of  ours,"  he  declares,  "  imprisoned  and  made 
a  slave  to  his  work,  nor  have  him  acquire  the  morose  and 
melancholy  disposition  of  the  sour,  ill-natured  pedant.  I 
would  not  have  his  spirit  cowed  and  subdued  by  tormenting 
him  fourteen  or  fifteen  hours  a  day,  as  some  do,  making  a 
pack  horse  of  him,  neither  should  I  think  it  good  to  en- 
courage an  abnormal  taste  for  books,  if  it  be  discovered  that 
he  is  too  much  addicted  to  reading." 

Learning  is  not  to  be  identified  with  education  ;  knowledge 
is  not  the  chief  end  in  life  nor  the  chief  factor  in  life.  Nor 
can  the  real  wisdom  of  life  be  gained  in  the  ways  of  the 
schools.  "  For  though  we  may  become  learned  by  other 
men's  reading,  a  man  can  never  be  wise  but  by  his  own 
wisdom." 

MONTAIGNE  NOT  A  HUMANISTIC-REALIST.  —  Consequently 
he  turns  to  those  views  which  have  led  many  to  classify  him 
with  the  humanistic-realists.  "  Let  our  pupil  be  furnished 
with  things — words  will  come  only  too  fast;  if  they  do  not 
come  readily,  he  will  reach  after  them."  But  what  is  meant 
here  by  things  is  ideas.  His  constant  preference  for  the 
education  of  the  Spartans  as  contrasted  with  that  of  the 
Athenians,  gives  this  distinction,  and  is  thus  expressed  in  one 
place  :  "  The  Athenians  bothered  their  brains  about  words, 
the  Spartans  made  it  their  business  to  inquire  into  things ; 
in  the  one  city  there  was  a  continual  babble  of  the  tongue,  in 
the  other  a  constant  exercise  of  the  mind."  So  far  as  he 
sanctions  the  use  of  books,  he  is,  as  a  matter  of  course,  at  one 
with  Rabelais  and  Milton  ;  but  his  point  of  view  and  his 
conception  of  education  are  far  different. 

NOT  A  SENSE-REALIST.  —  Nor  can  Montaigne  be  classed 
with  the  sense-realists  who  followed.  While  he  believed  in 
the  training  of  the  senses,  it  was  because  he  held  that  these 


458  History  of  Education 

were  all  that  was  perfectible  in  man ;  he  emphasized  the  im- 
portance of  the  physical  element  in  education,  because  he 
believed,  with  the  ancients,  a  sound  body  to  be  the  basis  of 
a  sound  mind ;  he  believed  that  the  vernacular  should 
come  first  and  should  be  taught  by  natural  methods.  But 
these  positions  were  taken  in  opposition  to  the  extremely 
artificial  humanistic  education  of  his  times  rather  than  from 
any  new  philosophy  of  the  mind  or  of  nature.  His  constantly 
expressed  preference  for  things  relates  to  the  realities  of 
thought  rather  than  to  those  of  the  phenomenal  world  as 
with  the  sense-realists.  If  it  is  said,  by  way  of  rebuttal,  that 
the  humanists  also  sought  for  the  realities  of  life  and  thought, 
the  answer  is  to  be  made  that  the  typical  educational  human- 
ists of  Montaigne's  time  and  of  the  following  centuries  made 
no  such  search ;  or,  if  they  did,  searched  in  a  very  limited 
source  and  by  inadequate  methods. 

MONTAIGNE  NOT  A  NATURALIST.  —  The  third  classification 
of  Montaigne,  that  with  the  naturalistic  educators  of  the  type 
of  Rousseau,  is  founded  upon  a  similarity  of  views  in  many 
details ;  but  in  most  fundamental  characteristics  the  views  of 
the  two  men  are  radically  different.  Rousseau,  for  example, 
educates  by  complete  isolation  from  the  world,  believing  that 
all  that  society  furnishes  is  evil.  Montaigne,  on  the  contrary, 
as  we  have  seen,  would  send  the  boy  early  into  the  world ;  — 
he  himself  was  sent  to  college  at  six  years  of  age  and  to 
university  at  thirteen  ;  —  and  believing  that  the  best  in  life  was 
to  be  gotten  from  immediate  contact  with  man  would  educate 
him  for  life  in  society.  In  fact,  with  all  his  skepticism,  this 
arch-skeptic  has  an  abiding  faith  in  human  nature  and  bases 
his  education  upon  this  faith.  He  does  believe  that  one  can 
learn  only  through  experience ;  not,  however,  simply  through 
his  own  experience  as  with  Rousseau,  but  rather  through  the 
experience  of  others.  Hence  the  great  stress  that  is  laid 
upon  contact  with  men  and  the  study  of  history.  "  In  this 
acquaintance  with  men,  my  purpose  is  that  he  should  give 


Realistic  Education  459 

chief  attention  to  those  who  live  in  the  records  of  history. 
He  shall  by  the  aid  of  books  inform  himself  of  the  worthiest 
minds  of  the  best  ages.  —  Let  him  read  history,  not  as  an 
amucing  narrative,  but  as  a  discipline  of  the  judgment." 

MONTAIGNE'S  CONCEPTION  OF  EDUCATION.  —  But  few  words 
more  are  necessary  to  give  in  concrete  terms  Montaigne's 
conception  of  the  aim  of  education,  expressed  as  it  is  in  most 
varied  terms  of  virtue  or  character  and  of  the  practical  wis- 
dom of  the  world.  "  It  is  not  enough  to  tie  learning  to  the 
soul,  but  to  work  and  incorporate  them  together ;  not  to  tinc- 
ture the  soul  merely,  but  to  give  it  a  thorough  and  perfect 
dye ;  and  if  it  will  not  take  color  and  meliorate  its  imperfect 
state,  it  were,  without  question,  better  to  leave  it  alone."  "  It 
is  not  the  mind,  it  is  not  the  body  that  we  are  training ;  it  is 
the  man,  and  we  must  not  divide  him  into  two  parts."  His 
idea  of  virtue  he  expresses  in  one  place  in  his  conception 
of  the  function  of  the  teacher ;  he  should 

"  make  his  pupil  feel  that  the  height  and  value  of  true 
virtue  consists  in  the  facility,  utility,  and  pleasure  of  its  exer- 
cise, and  that  by  order  and  good  conduct,  not  by  force,  is 
virtue  to  be  acquired.  .  .  .  Virtue  is  the  foster  mother  of  all 
human  pleasures,  who,  in  rendering  them  just,  renders  them 
also  pure  and  permanent;  in  moderating  them,  keeps  them 
in  breadth  and  appetite.  If  the  ordinary  fortune  fails,  virtue 
does  without,  or  frames  another,  wholly  her  own,  not  so  feeble 
and  unsteady.  She  can  be  rich,  potent,  and  wise,  and  knows 
how  to  lie  on  a  soft  and  perfumed  couch.  She  loves  life, 
beauty,  glory,  and  health.  But  her  proper  and  peculiar  office 
is  to  know  how  to  make  a  wise  use  of  all  these  good  things, 
and  how  to  part  with  them  without  concern  —  an  office  more 
noble  than  troublesome,  but  without  which  the  whole  course 
of  life  is  unnatural,  turbulent,  and  deformed." 

Not  a  high  idealism,  it  may  be  objected,  certainly  no  rigid 
asceticism  ;  yet  a  wholesome  corrective  of  the  formal  moral- 
ity of  the  time,  and  of  the  pedantic  scholarship  which  passed 
for  education.  It  is  a  frank  statement  of  an  honest,  if  some 


460  History  of  Education 

what  materialistic  morality ;  if  inferior  at  many  points  to  the 
abstract,  authoritative,  and  ineffective  idealism  of  the  times, 
it  at  least  is  practicable  and  far  superior  to  the  actual  state 
of  affairs. 

The  adequate  preparation  for  such  a  life  is  found  in  the 
study  of  philosophy,  which  should  teach  us  not  what  to  think, 
but  how  to  live.  "  The  true  philosophers,  if  they  were  great 
in  knowledge,  were  yet  much  greater  in  action."  By  a  study 
of  their  example  and  their  words  "  a  man  shall  learn  what  it 
is  to  know,  and  what  it  is  to  be  ignorant ;  what  ought  to  be 
the  end  and  the  design  of  study  ;  what  valor,  temperance,  and 
justice  are ;  what  difference  there  is  between  ambition  and 
avarice,  bondage  and  freedom,  license  and  liberty ;  by  what 
token  a  man  may  know  true  and  solid  content ;  to  what  extent 
one  may  fear  and  apprehend  death,  pain,  or  disgrace."  Such 
further  studies  as  are  needed  can  be  selected  by  the  same 
principle.  "  Among  the  liberal  studies  let  us  begin  with  those 
which  make  us  free ;  not  that  they  do  not  all  serve  in  some 
measure  to  the  instruction  and  rise  of  life,  as  do  all  other 
things,  but  let  us  make  a  choice  of  those  which  directly  and 
professedly  serve  to  that  end."  Herein  is  stated  the  principle 
that  is  coming  to  be  accepted  in  modern  times.  In  a  story 
from  the  Greeks,  which  Montaigne  quoted,  the  same  principle 
is  expressed  even  more  trenchantly :  "  Agesilaus  was  once 
asked  what  he  thought  most  proper  for  boys  to  learn  ? 
'  What  they  ought  to  do  when  men,'  was  the  reply."  The 
traditional  studies  are  not  to  be  neglected.  But  their  impor- 
tance is  secondary  and  depends  much  upon  the  method. 
"After  having  taught  your  pupil  what  will  make  him  wise 
and  good,  you  may  then  teach  him  the  elements  of  logic, 
physics,  geometry,  and  rhetoric.  After  training,  he  will 
quickly  make  his  own  that  science  which  best  pleases  him." 

The  principles  of  method  enunciated  follow  as  corollaries 
from  the  general  conception  given.  Knowledge  is  to  be 
assimilated,  action  to  be  imitated,  ideas  are  to  be  realized  in 


Realistic  Education  461 

conduct.  "  A  boy  should  not  so  much  memorize  his  lesson 
as  practice  it.  Let  him  repeat  it  in  his  actions.  We  shall 
discover  if  there  be  prudence  in  him  by  his  undertakings ; 
goodness  and  justice,  by  his  deportment;  grace  and  judg- 
ment, by  his  speaking;  fortitude,  by  his  sickness;  tem- 
perance, by  his  pleasures;  order,  by  his  management  of 
affairs ;  and  indifference,  by  his  palate."  Herein,  again,  are 
given  both  the  elements  in  the  ideal  and  the  character  of  the 
method.  Probably  the  most  famous  statement  of  method 
found  in  Montaigne,  one  which  contains  the  gist  of  all  his 
educational  ideas,  is  one  most  frequently  known  in  the  man- 
ner condemned  therein.  Apropos  of  the  traditional  verbal 
instruction,  he  remarks :  "  To  know  by  heart  only  is  not  to 
know  at  all;  it  is  simply  to  keep  what  one  has  committed  to 
his  memory.  What  a  man  knows  directly,  that  will  he  dis- 
pose of  without  turning  to  his  book  or  looking  to  his  pattern." 

It  follows  from  these  principles  previously  stated  that  learn- 
ing should  be  pleasurable  to  the  child  ;  effort  should  be  taken 
to  make  it  attractive.  For  the  same  reason  the  harsh  meas- 
ures adopted  in  most  schools  to  secure  application  and  indus- 
try are  wholly  condemned  and  rejected. 

The  sum  total  of  the  views  on  education,  whether  of  pur- 
pose, content,  or  method,  Montaigne  expresses  in  words  from 
Cicero:  "The  best  of  all  arts  —  that  of  living  well  —  they 
followed  in  their  lives  rather  than  in  their  learning." 

SENSE-REALISM.  The  General  Characteristics  of  Sense- 
realism.  —  By  this  term  is  indicated  that  conception  of  edu- 
cation, formulated  during  the  seventeenth  century,  which 
grew  out  of  and  included  the  characteristic  phases  of  the 
earlier  realism  previously  described,  but  in  addition  contained 
the  germs  of  the  modern  conception  of  education  whether 
stated  in  psychological,  sociological,  or  scientific  terms.  The 
term  itself  is..deriyed  from  the  fundamental  belief  thatknowl- 
edge  comes  primarily  through  the  senses,  that  education  is 


462  History  of  Education 

consequently  founded  on_a_trainin^in  sense  perception  rathei 
than  on  pure  memory  activities  and  directed  toward^,  differ- 
ent kind  of  subject-matter.  So  far  as  most  of  the  character- 
istics mentioned  are  concerned,  the  term  "  early  scientific 
movement,"  though  it  would  not  so  clearly  indicate  the  con- 
nection of  the  tendency  with  previous  development,  would  be 
quite  as  accurate.  For  the  first  time  we  find  formulated  a 
general  theory  of  education  based  upon  rational  rather  than 
upon  empirical  grounds.  For  these  reasons  Von  Raumer 
termed  this  group,  including  some  of  the  more  modern 
reformers  who  received  their  inspiration  from  this  earlier 
thought,  innovators.  This  term,  or  the  term  realists,  has  been 
frequently  used  to  include  the  group  of  men  or  the  tendency 
here  defined  with  greater  distinctness.  Influenced  by  the 
new  discoveries  then  being  made  in  nature's  processes,  and 
the  new  inventions  contrived  to  take  advantage  of  her  forces, 
imbued  with  an  interest  in  and  a  respect  for  the  phenomena 
of  nature  as  a  source  of  knowledge  and  truth,  these  realists 
held  that  education  itself  was  a  natural  rather  than  an  arti- 
ficial process ;  and,  further,  that  the  laws  or  principles  upon 
which  education  should  be  based  were  discoverable  in  nature. 
This  belief  gave  rise  to  two  tendencies  observable  in  the  work 
of  all  the  representatives  of  this  group ;  first,  that  toward 
the  formulation  of  a  rudimentary  science  or  philosophy  of 
education  based  upon  scientific  investigation  or  speculation 
rather  than  upon  pure  empiricism ;  and,  secondly,  toward 
replacing  the  exclusive  literary  and  linguistic  material  of  the 
school  curriculum  with  material  chosen  from  natural  sciences 
and  from  contemporary  life.  The  first  tendency  constituted 
the  earliest  attempt,  at  least  since  the  time  of  the  Greeks,  to 
formulate  an  educational  psychology,  though  but  a  very  rudi- 
mentary one.  While  several  of  these  men  insisted  upon  the 
study  of  the  child  and  the  adaptation  of  the  educational 
processes  to  the  child,  their  thought  in  respect  to  these  edu- 
cational principles  was  controlled  rather  by  their  theory  of 


Realistic  Education  463 

Knowledge  and,  as  with  Bacon,  by  their  investigation  into  the 
manner  in  which  knowledge  was  advanced  by  humanity  as  a 
whole.  They  possess  little  if  any  knowledge  of  the  devel- 
opment and  activities  of  the  child's  mind.  The  view  held  by 
all  of  those  men,  which  seems  to  us  a  commonplace  and  self- 
evident  truth,  —  that  the  child  should  acquire  the  idea  rather 
than  the  form,  should  understand  the  object  before  the  word, 
or  the  word  through  the  object,  —  constituted  for  this  period 
a  revolution  in  thought  and,  so  far  as  carried  out,  one  in 
practice  as  well.  This,  moreover,  led  to  another  innovation, 
which  in  that  it  necessitated  the  use  of  the  vernacular  in 
the  earlier  school  years  produced  a  practical  and  a  per 
manent  reform.  While  we  have  seen  that  both  with  the 
early  Protestant  reformers  and  with  the  Port  Royalists  the 
importance  of  the  vernacular  was  emphasized,  this  importance 
was  first  established  on  strictly  educational  grounds  by  the 
sense-realists.  It  is  true  that  during  the  seventeenth  century 
the  vernacular  came  into  more  common  use;  that  in  diplo- 
macy and  court  life,  the  French  superseded  the  Latin;  and 
that  in  Germany  before  the  close  of  the  century  the  number 
of  books  published  in  the  vernacular  outnumbered  those 
printed  in  Latin.  But  the  very  point  to  be  emphasized  is 
that  this  tendency  under  consideration  was  the  first  general 
response  of  education  to  the  new  social,  scientific,  and  philo- 
sophic ideas  which  were  the  logical  outcome  of  the  Renais- 
sance movement. 

Along  with  this  tendency  to  substitute  the  natural  and 
social  development  of  the  child  for  the  formal  ends  of  edu- 
cation previously  held,  the  natural  and  social  sciences  for 
the  purely  linguistic  curriculum,  and  the  vernacular  for  the 
Latin  tongue,  went  a  corresponding  change  in  method. 
This  was  the  effort  toward  the  formulation  of  a  method 
appropriate  to  the  new  subject-matter  and  the  new  aim. 
While  not  grasped  at  all  by  the  earliest  realists,  the  re-formu 
lation  of  this  method,  or  the  new  emphasis  placed  upon  it 


464  History  of  Education 

constituted  the  chief  claim  to  greatness  of  one  whom  we  hav« 
here  included  in  this  group,  —  Francis  Bacon.  The  educa- 
tors of  this  group  who  came  later  in  time  than  Bacon,  aU 
adopted  this  method  of  induction  as  one  of  the  keys  if  not 
the  most  important  key  to  the  solution  of  all  educational  dif- 
ficulties. Educationally,  this  thought  developed  into  the  idea 
of  a  general  method,  by  which  all  children  could  be  taught 
all  subjects,  in  a  way  wholly  nove1  and  so  expeditiously  that 
instead  of  the  meager  results  of  previous  times,  both  as 
regards  the  number  of  pupils  who  attained  to  any  results 
and  as  regards  the  amount  accomplished  by  the  few  who  suc- 
ceeded at  all,  all  children  would  now  be  able  to  master  all 
subjects. 

It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  refer  to  one  other  character- 
istic of  seventeenth-century  thought  in  order  to  understand 
these  sense-realists  or  early  scientists  in  education.  In  this 
thought  of  the  great  possibilities  of  the  new  education,  they 
but  shared  in  the  visionary  hopes  of  the  times.  Partly  as  a 
reaction  against  the  disappointment  experienced  on  account 
of  the  failure  of  either  the  reform  in  religion  or  the  recovery 
of  the  classical  learning  to  bring  about  any  great  and  rapid 
social  betterment,  the  thinkers  and  writers  of  the  period  who 
strove  for  the  general  improvement  of  mankind  turned  to  the 
new  sciences  and  the  new  method  for  the  solution  of  these 
evils.  This  general  tendency,  termed  the  "  pansophic  move- 
ment," endeavored  through  the  universal  dissemination  of 
knowledge  concerning  life  and  nature,  and  by  means  of  the 
new  method,  to  raise  the  average  of  human  attainment, 
thought,  and  activity  to  the  level  reached  hitherto  only  by 
the  favored  few. 

When  unified,  reduced,  and  organized  by  the  application  of 
the  new  method  of  induction,  the  sense-realists  held  knowl- 
edge to  be  comparatively  simple.  By  means  of  the  new 
method  and  the  previous  use  of  the  vernacular  all  the  neces- 
sary languages  could  be  mastered  as  well,  and  within  the  time 


Realistic  Education  465 

and  effort  allotted  to  the  mastery  of  one  under  the  old  system 
Upon  the  basis  of  this  unified  and  simplified  knowledge  which 
consequently  could  be  mastered  by  every  individual,  the  race 
could  go  on  in  that  course  of  discovery,  invention,  and  self- 
improvement  which,  while  partially  realized  in  intervening 
centuries,  yet  forms  the  ideal  and  the  inspiration  of  the  race. 
Upon  this  uniform  method  and  content  of  education  they 
based  their  hopes,  first  of  a  unified  language  —  at  least  uni- 
fied national  languages;  upon  that  the  hopes  of  a  unified 
religion  in  place  of  the  innumerable  dissenting  bodies  then 
existing ;  and  upon  that  a  unified  political  life  and  organiza- 
tion. It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  rationality,  not 
authority,  was  to  form  the  basis  of  all  this.  This  —  the  new 
education  of  the  seventeenth  century  —  was  expressed  in  the 
educational  writings  of  the  times ;  however,  it  acquired  but 
slight  influence  upon  the  schools,  and  that  of  gradual,  almost 
imperceptible,  growth. 

Some  Representative  Sense-realists.  —  A  movement  so  last- 
ing and  so  fundamental  naturally  found  expression  in  the 
writings  and  in  the  work  of  many  men,  some  of  whom 
perceived  the  new  idea  in  a  few  of  its  aspects  only,  while 
others  grasped  it  in  its  entirety.  Two  or  three  of  these 
representatives  who  wrote  before  the  philosophy  of  the  move- 
ment had  been  formulated  by  Bacon  and  Descartes  are  quite 
worthy  of  study  if  space  permitted.  Among  these  are  the 
Frenchman,  Peter  Ramus;  the  Spaniard,  Ludovico  Vives; 
the  Englishmen,  Mukaster,  Hoole,  Hartlib,  Petty,  and  the 
philosopher  Bacon ;  and  above  all  the  Czech,  Comenius. 
But  two  of  these,  Bacon  and  Comenius,  can  be  studied  in 
detail. 

Richard  Mukaster  (1531-1611)  was  one  of  the  earliest  of 
these.  One  of  the  most  famous  of  early  English  school- 
masters,—  for  he  served  as  the  headmaster  of  the  Merchant 
Taylors'  School  from  1561  to  1586  and  of  St.  Paul's  from 
1586  to  1608,  —  he  speaks  with  the  authority  of  a  practical 

2H 


466  History  of  Education 

schoolman  as  well  as  that  of  a  theorist.  All  the  more  inter 
esting  from  his  service  at  the  head  of  these  great  Renaissance 
schools  is  his  main  argument  in  regard  to  education ;  namely, 
that  the  study  of  the  vernacular  should  precede  both  in 
time  and  in  importance  the  study  of  Latin.  This  is  urged 
both  because  it  is  the  native  tongue  and  because  it  is  the 
only  language  that  the  majority  of  the  boys  even  of  the  Latin 
schools  will  ever  use  Mulcaster  was  far  from  believing 
that  education  should  be  universal,  but  he  held  that  it  should 
be  effective  with  those  for  whom  designed.  He  possessed 
the  courage  of  his  convictions,  and  wrote  in  the  English 
tongue  with  such  excellence,  in  the  formal  style  characteristic 
of  the  times,  that  he  frankly  but  rashly  claimed  that  his 
writings  constituted  the  appropriate  models  in  the  new  study 
as  did  Cicero  in  Latin  or  Demosthenes  in  Greek.  The  view 
concerning  the  importance  of  the  vernacular,  advanced  in 
his  earlier  work,  was  elaborated  in  a  treatise  devoted  entirely 
to  the  subject,  entitled  The  Elementarie,  which  entreat 'eth 
chieflie  of  the  right  Writing  of  the  English  tung.  In  his  work 
published  in  the  preceding  year  (1581),  entitled  Positions 
wherein  those  circumstances  be  examined,  which  are  necessary 
for  the  training  up  of  children  either  for  skill  in  their  booke,  or 
health  in  their  bodie,  he  expresses  views  that  entitle  him  to 
be  classed  among  the  reformers  of  the  following  century. 
The  "  positions  "  expounded  are  forty-five  in  number,  but  the 
greater  number  of  them  relate  to  the  training  of  the  body  and 
of  the  disposition  through  games  and  exercises.  Since  the 
natural  abilities  of  the  child  are  to  be  considered  and  studied, 
and  since  they  are  developed  primarily  by  physical  training, 
such  training  is  a  component  part  of  his  idea  of  education. 
The  three  natural  powers  in  children  are  "Wit  to  conceive 
by,  Memory  to  retain,  Discretion  to  discern  by  "  ;  not  a  very 
exhaustive  psychological  analysis  but  a  move  in  the  right 
direction.  In  both  treatises  the  idea  of  education  according 
to  nature  is  advanced,  and  in  a  much  saner  form  than  the 


Realistic  Education  467 

eighteenth-century  exaggeration.  As  a  reaction  against  the 
formal,  repressive  school  work  of  the  times,  whicn  aimed  at 
the  eradication  of  many  of  the  tendencies  and  activities 
natural  to  childhood,  Mulcaster  held  that  education  should 
not  aim  either  to  force  or  to  repress  the  child,  but  that  "  the 
end  of  education  and  training  is  to  help  nature  to  her  perfec- 
tion." Two  or  three  corollaries  of  great  importance  follow 
from  this  view  of  the  nature  of  education ;  one,  that  while  all 
children  can  profit  by  some  elementary  training  in  the  ver- 
nacular, yet  on  the  other  hand  too  many  seek  the  higher 
education  in  the  classical  tongues  which  is  not  fit  for  all ; 
another  that  education  of  both  grades  should  be  for  boys  and 
girls  alike  ;  further,  that  education  in  the  schools  is  preferable 
to  education  by  tutors.  This  latter  view  led  to  the  elabora- 
tion of  a  position  that  forms  one  of  the  remarkable  previsions 
of  the  work,  that  is,  concerning  the  training  of  teachers.  The 
arguments  for  the  training  of  teachers  are  fully  stated,  but, 
in  addition,  Mulcaster  holds  that  the  universities  should  pro- 
vide for  this  as  for  the  professions  of  the  law,  medicine,  and 
the  ministry.  The  sixteenth-century  prevision  awaited  the 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century  for  its  fulfillment. 

Aside  from  the  emphasis  upon  plays,  games,  and  exercise, 
with  their  general  physical  and  moral  results,  Mulcaster  has 
little  to  say  concerning  the  chief  feature  of  sense-realism, 
that  is,  the  training  of  the  senses  through  a  study  of  the 
phenomena  of  nature.  But  in  his  views  regarding  the  train- 
ing of  the  body,  the  limited  value  of  Greek  and  Latin,  the 
universal  value  of  the  vernacular,  the  demand  for  a  study  of 
the  child,  the  demand  that  education  be  made  pleasurable  and 
in  his  view  of  education  according  to  nature,  Mulcaster  is 
at  one  with  the  later  members  of  this  group  and  is  one  of 
their  important  forerunners.1 

1  More  adequate  treatment  of  Mulcaster  will  be  found  in  Barnard,  English 
Pedagogy,  first  series,  pp.  177-185;  Oliphant,  Educational  Writings  of  Richard 
Mulcaster  (Glasgow,  1903);  Quick,  Educational  Reformers  Ch.  Vili;  Quick 


468  History  of  Education 

Francis  Bacon  (1561-1626).  —  Highest  among  those  who 
caught  a  preliminary  glimpse  of  the  coming  reforms  in  the 
character  of  the  intellectual  life  and  in  education,  and  above 
those  who  made  the  specific  application  of  these  new  discov- 
eries to  education,  stands  the  English  philosopher  Francis 
Bacon.  He  possessed  little  knowledge  or  interest  in  either 
educational  questions  or  processes,  and  wrote  little  directly 
on  either  topic ;  yet  he  it  was  who  gave  learning  or  sci- 
ence, and  consequently  education,  a  new  basis,  a  new  pur- 
pose and  a  new  tendency.1  Bacon  was  not  the  discoverer  of 
new  ideas,  for  he  but  sums  up  the  Renaissance  tendencies 
against  authority  in  the  intellectual  world  and  toward  the 
discovery  of  the  realities  of  the  phenomenal  and  of  the 
thought  world ;  nor,  since  the  inductive  method  is  used  in  a 
practical  way  by  every  human  being  and  had  been  used  in  a 
scientific  way  by  the  later  Greek  philosophers  and  by  some  of 
those  who  shared  their  intellectual  inheritance,  was  he  even 
the  discoverer  or  inventor  of  a  new  method. 

Bacon  gave  to  philosophy  or  to  science,  that  is,  to  the  intel- 
lectual life,  a  new  purpose,  in  that  he  rejected  the  previously 
accepted  aim,  —  that  of  the  theoretic  formulation  of  knowl- 
edge,—  in  favor  of  the  practical  and  useful  aim.  Of  the  past 
he  says:  "Philosophy  and  the  intellectual  sciences,  are 
adorned  and  celebrated  like  statues,  but  like  statues,  are  not 
moved  from  the  spot  whereon  they  stand."  This  condition  he 
contrasts  with  that  of  the  mechanical  arts,  which  "  are  daily 
increased  and  brought  to  perfection  "  because  their  aims  are 
practical  and  useful.  The  intellectual  life  is  to  be  made 
fruitful,  as  the  old  speculation  was  not,  by  being  made  prac- 
tical. What  is  true  of  the  intellectual  life  in  general  is  more 
so  of  its  method, —  education.  In  becoming  fruitful  it  becomes 
useful  to  the  many  instead  of  attainable  only  by  the  few. 

Afu/casfer's  Positions  (London,  1888)  ;    Watson,  Mulcaster  uid  Aschai*  (New 
York,  1899). 

1  See  Fisher,  Francis  Bacon  and  his  Times. 


Realistic  Education  469 

This  fruitfulness  was  to  be  gained  by  giving  the  intellectual 
life,  or  science,  a  new  foundation,  —  nature.  This  practical 
knowledge  must  be  of  our  natural  environment,  its  phenomena 
and  its  processes  rather  than  the  knowledge  of  the  phenom- 
ena of  the  mind,  interest  in  which  had  absorbed  all  philos- 
ophy from  the  time  of  the  early  Greeks.  Neither  theology 
nor  ethics  nor  metaphysics,  the  bases  of  previous  philosophies, 
but  physics  was  to  serve  as  the  foundation  of  the  new.  Even 
the  moral  and  political  philosophies  were  to  receive  new 
meaning  —  they  found  little  if  any  in  the  past  —  by  being 
founded  on  or  referred  to  the  natural  sciences.  In  this 
position  Bacon  foretold,  though  he  did  not  clearly  foresee,  the 
evolutionary  formulation  of  those  sciences  and  paved  the  way 
for  their  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  century  development 
How  much  more  would  this  be  true  of  education  according  to 
the  views  of  the  Baconian  disciples.  It  is  in  this  particular 
that  the  significance  of  the  sense-realism  of  this  period  is 
found,  —  in  that  later  formulation  of  this  educational  doctrine 
in  the  theory  that  all  knowledge  comes  primarily  through  the 
senses.  Bacon  himself  had  no  full  grasp  of  the  idea.  So 
also  had  none  of  his  followers  till  Locke.  They  were  con- 
cerned with  the  objective  process,  how  knowledge  is  pro- 
duced and  made  practical  for  the  race,  not  how  it  is 
acquired  psychologically  by  the  individual. 

The  new  tendency  given  to  the  intellectual  life  and  to 
education  was  away  from  the  formalism  of  the  old  learning, 
toward  the  realism  of  the  new ;  from  dealing  with  words 
and  abstractions,  to  dealing  with  objects  and  ideas.  The 
tendency  of  the  intellectual  life  was  not  toward  the  formula- 
tion of  closed  systems  of  thought  which  were  satisfied  with 
definitions  and  abstract  formulations.  Nor  was  education 
directed  toward  a  mastery  of  words  and  logical  power 
in  handling  the  syllogism  developed  through  a  discipline  in 
grammatical  forms,  and  in  "denning,"  "determining,"  and 
"  disputing."  No  matter  whether  developed  through  Roman 


470  History  of  Education 

or  Protestant  theological  scholasticism,  through  Aristotelian 
metaphysics  and  philosophy,  or  through  humanistic  and  lin- 
guistic formalism,  the  fundamental  pedagogical  idea  is  the 
same.  Intellectually,  the  new  tendency  in  thought  was  directed 
toward  the  formulation  of  fruitful  principles  of  interpretation 
and  methods  of  investigation  that  could  never  produce  a  per- 
fected system  of  thought;  educationally,  it  was  concerned 
with  the  entire  realm  of  the  knowledge  of  nature  and  of  society 
and  with  the  use  of  a  method  that  would  develop  in  the 
individual  power  of  dealing  with  this  world  of  reality. 

Bacon  himself  was  not  the  first,  nor  the  only  one  of  his 
times,  to  participate  in  these  tendencies;  for  Copernicus, 
Vives,  Da  Vinci,  and  others  worked  immediately  before  him, 
and  Galileo,  Descartes,  Kepler,  Grotius,  Boyle,  and  others 
along  with  him.  But  Bacon,  of  them  all,  seized  the  whole 
problem,  stated  its  terms,  and  formulated  its  equations.  In 
actual  solutions  he  did  less  than  many  of  the  others.  In 
1 592  he  stated  to  his  father :  "  I  have  as  vast  contemplative 
ends  as  I  have  moderate  civil  ends,  for  I  have  taken  all 
knowledge  to  be  my  province ;  and  if  I  could  purge  it  of  two 
sorts  of  powers,  whereof  the  one  with  frivolous  disputations, 
confutations,  and  verbosities  (the  Schoolmen),  the  other  with 
blind  experiments  and  auricular  traditions  and  impostures 
(unmethodical  investigators,  e.g.  alchemists,  astrologers,  etc.) 
hath  committed  so  many  spoils,  I  hope  I  should  bring  in 
industrious  observations  and  profitable  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries—  the  best  state  of  that  province."  His  plan  as 
indicated  in  the  introduction  to  the  Instauratio  Magna  was 
to  erect  a  new  temple  of  human  wisdom,  not  using  the  ma- 
terial of  the  old,  which  he  thought  altogether  useless  and 
unsafe.  "  It  is  idle  to  expect  any  great  advancement  in 
science,  from  the  superinducing  and  engrafting  of  new  things 
on  old ;  we  must  begin  anew  from  the  very  foundation  unless 
we  would  revolve  forever  in  a  circle  with  mean  and  con- 
temptible projects."  He  draws  this  design  not  only  for  hi* 


Realistic  Education  471 

own  work,  but  for  all  future  intellectual  effort,  for  which  his 
own  was  to  serve  but  as  a  model  in  miniature.  The  first 
part  of  his  plan  was  to  survey  human  knowledge  in  its  exist- 
ing stage,  to  construct  a  chart  or  map  of  the  intellectual 
world,  including  not  only  these  facts  well  known, — the  pre- 
vious systems,  —  but  also  those  unknown  or  barren  regions 
which,  though  ready  for  exploration,  had  rarely  been  visited 
bv  the  human  mind.  This  he  did  in  his  Advancement  of 
Learning,  the  only  part  of  his  plan  even  approximately 
completed.  The  second  part  of  his  work  was  to  formulate 
the  method  for  the  investigation  of  phenomena,  the  deter- 
mination of  the  process  by  which  the  new  edifice  was  to  be 
erected  upon  the  foundation  previously  laid.  This  is  the 
Novum  Organum,  the  new  method,  —  induction,  —  opposed 
to  the  Organon  of  Aristotle,  which  had  determined  the  intel- 
lectual methods  of  centuries.  Bacon  only  finished  a  part  of 
this  work,  but  sufficient  to  give  a  profound  and  determining 
influence  to  all  modern  thought.  Third,  was  his  design  to 
collect  the  results  of  experience  with  nature  as  an  "  Experi- 
mental History  of  Nature."  Only  fragmentary  portions  of 
this  work,  such  as  the  Sylva  Sylvarum,  were  ever  completed. 
Fourth,  he  was  to  attempt  an  outline  plan  of  natural  phi- 
losophy, the  detailed  design  of  the  superstructure,  from  the 
material  collected  in  carrying  out  the  second  and  third  por- 
tions of  his  plan.  The  fifth  and  sixth  parts  of  his  plan,  the 
edifice  itself,  were  to  consist  in  the  collection  of  the  empirical 
results  already  attained  and  the  formulation  of  the  true  phi- 
losophy of  nature.  While  scattered  fragments  of  Bacon's 
works  refer  at  least  to  the  fifth  portion  of  this  outline,  he  did 
little,  and  necessarily  could  do  little,  with  the  latter  half  of 
his  plan ;  for,  in  the  first  place,  all  succeeding  time  has  been 
at  work  along  these  lines  without  reaching  Bacon's  ideals ; 
and,  in  the  second  place,  his  great  purpose  was  not  to  com- 
plete a  system  of  thought,  but  to  mark  out  lines  of  intellectual 
endeavor  and  advance. 


History  of  Education 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  INFLUENCE  of  Bacon  may  be  briefly 
summed  up  under  the  heads  previously  mentioned,  the  new 
purpose  and  basis,  or  his  influence  on  the  subject-matter  of 
education,  and  the  new  method. 

^ubject-matter.  —  Bacon's  aspirations  for  a  formulation 
and  reorganization  of  the  entire  realm  of  human  knowledge 
such  as  would  serve  for  the  improvement  of  human  welfare, 
even  for  the  regeneration  of  society,  by  basing  it  not  upon 
the  old  literary  knowledge  which  concerned  itself  with  man, 
but  upon  the  new  scientific  knowledge  which  concerned  itself 
with  nature  and  hence  dealt  with  uniformity  and  not  varia- 
bility, were  shared  by  many  philosophers,  educators  and 
statesmen  of  his  time.  This  was  the  "pansophic"  ideal  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Knowledge  when  unified  was  a  com- 
paratively simple  thing,  they  held.  They  held  that  when 
based  upon  the  uniformity  of  nature  instead  of  upon  the  vari- 
ability of  man,  it  dealt  with  laws  and  principles  that  could  be 
investigated  and  determined  by  definite  methods,  not  by  guess- 
work ;  it  dealt  with  forces  that  could  be  controlled  and  used 
for  human  progress;  that  were  dynamic  rather  than  static  in 
character.  Such  knowledge  must  be  derived  primarily  from  a 
study  of  the  phenomena  of  nature ;  and  only  secondarily  from 
the  phenomena  of  the  mind,  that  is,  from  the  language,  the 
literature,  the  philosophy,  and  the  theology  of  past  generations. 
Education  through  the  schools  should  secure  the  dissemination 
of  this  knowledge,  because  when  unified  it  would  be  within  the 
grasp  of  every  child.  And  when  so  disseminated  the  problems 
of  society,  especially  those  of  diversity  in  human  speech,  in 
human  beliefs,  and  in  human  government  would  be  solved. 
Bacon  even  held  that  education,  under  the  name  of  tradition,— 
that  is,  the  transfer  of  the  intellectual  possessions  of  the  race 
from  one  generation  to  another,  —  should  be  an  object  of  study 
in  itself,  as  the  most  important  of  social  processes. 

Within  the  centuries  since  the  opening  of  the  Renaissarvc* 
nan's  empirical  knowledge  of  the  material  universe  and  his 


Realistic  Education  473 

power  over  it  had  been  marvelously  expanded.  The  world 
of  thought  had  not  kept  pace  with  this.  The  problem,  to 
Bacon,  was  to  expand  the  intellectual  world  until  it  should  not 
only  correspond  to  and  keep  pace  with  this  expansion,  but 
should  precede  it.  He  considered  that  it  was  dishonorable  that 
"  the  boundaries  of  the  intellectual  world  should  be  confined 
to  the  discoveries  and  straits  of  the  ancients."  Consequently, 
study  was  to  be  directed  toward  the  phenomena  of  nature  as 
the  only  means  of  bringing  about  this  equilibration  between 
practical  opportunity  and  duties  and  knowledge.  With  his 
followers  this  new  and  productive  kind  of  knowledge  was  to 
be  made  the  subject-matter  of  school  work ;  not  because 
knowledge  came  only  through  the  senses,  —  a  principle  not 
yet  fully  formulated  in  its  modern  meaning,  —  but  because 
such  knowledge  was  the  only  real  and  fruitful  knowledge, 
because  such  knowledge  made  up  the  bulk  of  the  whole  pan- 
sophic  scheme  of  thought,  and  because  the  renovation  of 
society  was  thus  to  be  brought  about.  This  is  the  earlier 
form  of  sense-realism  in  education.  Education  now  received 
a  more  than  individualistic  value  of  either  religious  or  practical 
character,  and  derived  a  hitherto  unknown  social  value.  Edu- 
cation, as  science  itself,  was  with  Bacon  but  a  means  to  an 
end, — the  dominance  of  man  over  things;  "human  science 
and  human  power  coincide."  To  such  knowledge  and  to  such 
power,  there  was  no  limit.  If  the  expectations  of  these  men 
led  by  the  pansophic  ideal  appear  to  us  now  as  wholly  vision- 
ary, no  less  so  to  their  own  times  did  those  specific  instances 
of  the  expansion  of  human  power  through  knowledge  of  na- 
ture, clearly  foreshadowed  by  Bacon  and  realized  only  in  the 
present.  His  entire  teaching,  in  regard  to  both  the  purpose 
and  subject-matter  of  education,  is  summed  up  in  a  single  brief 
paragraph  written  of  the  whole  intellectual  life  :  "  Man  is  but 
the  servant  and  the  interpreter  of  nature  ;  what  he  does  and 
what  he  knows  is  only  what  he  has  observed  of  nature's 
order  in  fact  or  in  thought ;  beyond  this  he  knows  nothing 


474  History  of  Education 

i 

and  can  do  nothing.  For  the  chain  of  causes  cannot  by  any 
force  be  loosed  or  broken,  nor  can  nature  be  commanded 
except  by  being  obeyed.  And  so  those  twin  objects,  human 
Knowledge  and  human  Power,  do  really  meet  in  one ;  and  it 
is  from  ignorance  of  causes  that  operation  fails."/ 

Little  explicit  reference  is  made  in  any  of  Bacon's  works  to 
the  particular  bearing  of  his  general  ideas  concerning  knowl- 
edge on  concrete  educational  work.  However,  the  closing 
portion  of  his  incomplete  Utopia,  The  New  Atlantis,  is 
devoted  to  a  description  of  the  ideal  educational  institution, 
the  investigating  university,  called  Solomon's  House,  which 
foreshadows  much  that  universities,  scientific  departments  of 
governments,  and  learned  investigators  now  do  and  much 
besides  in  a  scientific  way  that  is  yet  in  the  realm  of  un- 
achieved human  aspiration.  The  modification  of  species, 
animal  and  plant;  curative  methods,  through  hypodermic 
serum  infusions ;  the  modification  of  metals,  as  in  steel ;  the 
transformation  of  various  forms  of  energy ;  the  steam  en- 
gine; communication  at  a  distance,  were  some  of  these  remark- 
able previsions  of  scientific  innovations.  Yet  even  here  it  is 
the  spirit  and  the  principle  rather  than  the  detail  that  is 
significant. 

-Method.  —  In  order  that  science  and  by  inference  educa- 
tion should  become  practical,  powerful  and  helpful,  a  new 
method  as  well  as  a  new  subject-matter  was  necessary.  In 
fact  the  new  subject-matter  could  only  be  dealt  with  by  a 
new  method.  "  There  are,"  he  says,  "  and  can  be  only  two 
ways  for  the  investigation  and  discovery  of  truth.  One 
flies  from  the  senses  and  particulars  to  the  most  general 
axioms,  and  from  these  principles  and  their  infallible  truths 
determines  and  discovers  intermediate  axioms.  And  this  is 
the  way  now  in  use.  The  other  constructs  axioms  from  the 
senses  and  particulars,  by  ascending  continually  and  gradu- 
ally, so  as  to  reach  the  most  general  axioms  last  of  all. 
This  is  the  true  way,  but  it  is  yet  untried."  With  the  old 


Realistic  Education  475 

method  of  thought,  the  entire  process  is  controlled  by  its 
starting  point,  which  is  an  axiom,  a  thing  given  or  deter- 
mined. With  the  new  method,  the  entire  process  is  controlled 
by  the  goal  to  be  reached,  which  is  a  problem  to  be  solved  by 
investigation  of  particulars.  With  this  method  the  particulars 
are  discoverable  by  observation,  not  given  by  authority ; 
the  problem  is  solved  and  the  principles  are  determined  by 
induction.  The  practical  goal,  beyond  the  scientific  problem, 
is  reached  by  the  application  of  the  principle  through  the 
deductive  process  to  the  practical  problem.  The  result  is 
an  invention,  —  the  practical  application  of  knowledge  to 
human  welfare  and  power.  This  is  the  complete  circle  of 
Baconian  thought  involving  both  methods.  Only  the  deduc- 
tive method  is  secondary.  He  does  not  deny,  as  do  many 
of  his  followers,  its  validity  for  the  discovery  of  truth, 
though  he  does  deny  that  the  truth  apt  to  be  reached  by 
this  method  will  result  in  the  advancement  of  human  power 
and  usefulness.  He  specifically  admits  that  there  is  a 
"theological  science"  as  well  as  a  natural  science,  and  that 
the  appropriate  method  of  the  former  is  deduction  and 
"analogy."  In  fact,  Bacon  is  not  averse  to  the  use  of 
"  analogy  "  in  various  portions  of  his  works. 

Striking  advance  had  been  made  in  Bacon's  time  and 
most  of  it  had  come  as  a  result  of  accidental  discovery,  as 
with  the  compass,  gunpowder,  the  telescope,  and  the  printing 
press.  Bacon  aimed  to  change  this  chance  to  design ;  "  for 
though  it  may  happen  once  or  twice  that  some  one  by  rhance 
hits  upon  what  has  hitherto  escaped  him,  while  making  every 
effort  in  the  inquiry,  yet  without  doubt  the  contrary  will 
happen  in  the  long  run.  For  chance  works  rarely  and 
tardily  and  without  order;  but  art  constantly,  rapidly,  and 
in  an  orderly  manner."  The  new  method,  the  art  of  dis- 
covery or  of  invention,  not  the  whole  method  of  human 
thought,  was  formulated  in  the  Novum  Organum.  Bacon 
stated  the  logic  of  the  new,  as  Aristotle  did  that  of  the  old 


476  History  of  Education 

The  goal  which  Bacon  held  to  be  of  sole  value  was  powei 
over  nature  :  knowledge  of  nature  was  the  source  of  all  such 
power ;  observation,  investigation,  experimentation,  was  the 
sole  method  of  reaching  that  knowledge.  This  knowledge 
could  not  be  obtained  by  the  old  scholastic  method,  that  of 
definition  and  of  the  syllogism ;  —  methods  valid  enough  for 
the  truths  which  they  sought,  but  truths  to  Bacon  not  worth 
the  search.  Nor  did  Bacon  hold  to  the  nominalistic  formula, 
"  only  that  is  in  the  intellect  which  first  is  in  the  senses,"  or 
to  its  modern  restatement  as  a  determinant  of  all  method  ;  for 
he  held  that  the  senses  unchecked  were  particularly  unsafe 
guides.  He  opposed  the  Aristotelian  observation,  unchecked 
by  test,  as  vigorously  as  he  did  the  syllogistic  deduction  of 
the  Schoolmen.  The  experience  of  the  senses  must  be 
checked  by  experiment.  Neither  the  senses,  as  seen  in  the 
case  of  a  test  of  temperature,  nor  the  understanding,  as  in 
the  long-accepted  Ptolemaic  explanation  of  the  motions  of  the 
earth  and  the  sun,  are  safe  guides  when  left  to  themselves. 
Truth  is  not  reached  by  the  mere  accumulation  of  similar 
instances.  Such,  he  objected,  is  the  character  of  Aristotelian 
induction  and  of  untrained  empirical  wisdom.  A  generaliza- 
tion reached  inductively  is  not  valid  unless  tested  by  the 
"  negative  instance  " ;  for  one  such  instance  to  the  contrary 
will  counterbalance  the  weight  of  any  number  of  a  positive 
character  in  the  establishment  of  a  universal  law  or  principle 
such  as  are  those  of  nature. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  employment  of  the  proper 
method  and  the  discovery  of  knowledge  worthy  of  human 
endeavor,  Bacon  termed  "  idols  "  (Novum  Organum,  xxxix) ; 
and  classified  them  as  idols  of  the  tribe,  those  that  "  have 
their  foundation  in  human  nature  as  such,  and  in  the  tribe 
and  race  of  men  "  ;  idols  of  the  den,  or  the  personal  bias  of 
the  individual ;  idols  of  the  market  place,  or  those  which  arise 
from  the  manners,  customs,  and  usages  of  men  in  their  social 
intercourse;  and  idols  of  the  theater,  those  which  depend 


Realistic  Education  477 

upon  doctrines,  dogmas,  and  traditions.  Now  invention,  con- 
sequently progress,  is  only  arrived  at  by  an  interpretation  of 
nature  without  the  intervention  of  any  of  these  idols,  conse- 
quently only  by  the  scientifically  guarded  inductive  method. 
Then  we  come  to  know  things  as  they  really  are,  not  merely 
as  popularly  represented.  This  is  the  aim  of  science,  of 
philosophy,  of  education. 

But  this  method  has  one  more  scientific  relation  to  educa- 
tional work,  made  not  by  Bacon  but  by  his  followers.  Bacon 
in  his  method  was  not  thinking  of  the  subjective  process,  the 
psychological  bearing  of  his  great  idea,  but  merely  of  its 
objective  value.  He  was  concerned  in  showing  how  the  race 
as  a  whole  could  come  into  the  possession  of  that  knowledge 
which  would  be  of  permanent  benefit  to  itself,  and  to  indicate 
the  tests  of  real  knowledge.  But  in  showing  how  it  is  that 
we  know,  he  by  inference  indicated  how  it  is  that  the  indi- 
vidual comes  to  know  and  also  how  the  individual  should  be 
taught.  Bacon  himself  was  interested  primarily  in  the  sub- 
ject-matter of  thought  and  the  possible  outcome  of  it;  only 
secondarily  in  the  process  of  thought.  But  as  method  elab- 
orated by  Bacon  revolutionized  the  scientific  knowledge  of 
the  race  and  led  to  unprecedented  progress,  so  its  educational 
application,  as  made  by  his  followers,  especially  as  introduced 
by  Comenius,  in  time  revolutionized  school  method.  The 
specific  application  of  these  we  are  to  see  later. 

The  position  of  Bacon  in  the  history  of  education,  as  in  the 
history  of  human  thought,  is  usually  either  much  exaggerated 
or  undervalued.  On  the  one  hand  he  was  not  the  discoverer 
of  a  new  method  of  thought,  for  he  had  predecessors  as  well 
as  co-laborers.  He  formulated  this  method,  however,  show- 
ing that  hitherto  nature  had  been  rather  anticipated  by  happy 
chance  than  interpreted  by  certain  method.  Nor  on  the 
other  hand  was  he  a  man  who  simply  repeated  what  was  a 
time-worn  familiarity  with  all  great  thinkers.  He  showed 
that,  while  all  men  have  experience  and  guide  their  conduct 


478  History  of  Education 

empirically  by  it,  experience  is  far  from  explicit  invention 
through  scientific  method.  Nor  is  he  to  be  charged  with 
the  narrowness  of  some  of  his  followers  of  exalting  one  phase 
of  the  thought  process  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others,  or  iden- 
tifying the  test  of  knowledge  with  the  source  from  which  all 
knowledge  is  obtained.  Bacon's  educational  interpreters  are 
next  to  be  considered. 

Wolfgang  Ratke  (Ratichius  or  Ratich),  who  lived  from  1571 
to  1635,  first  formulated  in  educational  terms  those  ideas  con- 
cerning the  new  subject-matter  of  study  and  the  new  methods 
of  investigation  conducive  to  the  advancement  of  human  wel- 
fare that  were  a  part  of  the  new  spirit  of  the  early  seven- 
teenth century,  and  were  first  definitely  formulated  by  Bacon. 

The  early  formulation  of  the  new  educational  ideas  by 
Ratke  was  presented  to  several  princes  and  cities,  and  finally 
to  the  Diet  of  the  German  Empire  at  Frankfort  in  1612.  In 
this  presentation,  which  attracted  attention  as  well  by  its  nov- 
elty as  by  its  scope,  Ratke  claimed  :  (i)  By  his  new  method 
to  be  able  to  teach  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  tongues  more 
thoroughly  and  in  a  much  shorter  time  than  had  hitherto  been 
devoted  even  to  the  one ;  (2)  by  use  of  the  vernacular  as  the 
basis  for  instruction,  to  give  to  all  children  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  all  the  arts  and  sciences;  (3)  through  the  continual  use 
of  the  vernacular  and  the  new  methods  to  bring  about  the  use  of 
one  language  among  all  the  German  people  in  place  of  the 
multitudinous  dialects,  and  thus  to  lay  the  basis  in  the  uniform 
language  for  uniformity  in  religion  and  ultimately  uniformity 
in  government.  This  plan,  submitted  to  the  examination  of 
representatives  of  two  university  faculties,  was  approved  in 
both  cases. 

Ratke,  however,  failed  of  the  success  in  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  his  ideas  that  he  attained  in  their  theoretical  pre- 
sentation. Having  interested,  in  succession,  the  Pfalzgrave 
of  Marburg,  the  Landgrave  of  Darmstadt,  the  Duchess  of 
Weimar,  the  municipal  authorities  of  Augsburg  and  of  Frank- 


Realistic  Education  479 

fort,  the  Princes  of  Anhalt-Kothen,  and  of  Weimar,  and  the 
Chancellor  of  Sweden,  he  failed  in  each  case  to  put  his  ideas 
into  successful  operation  and  consequently  to  retain  the  sup- 
port of  the  authorities.  In  the  case  of  Kothen  an  extensive 
printing  establishment,  necessary  to  carry  out  his  ideas  of 
language  teaching,  and  a  school  of  five  hundred  children 
were  furnished  him.  But,  owing  more  to  the  character  of  his 
personality  than  to  any  defects  in  his  ideas,  he  was  successful 
with  neither  institution. 

However,  the  innovator  succeeded  in  convincing  many  of 
the  truth  and  the  value  of  his  new  educational  ideas,  and 
gathered  around  him  a  number  of  personal  followers.  From 
these,  or  from  Ratke  himself,  with  an  authorship  not  clearly 
determinable,  came  an  extensive  literature  of  education  both 
in  the  way  of  text-books  and  expository  treatises.  Thus 
the  ideas  and  the  inspiration  were  passed  on  to  a  succeeding 
generation  —  one  that  produced  in  Comenius  a  leader  capable 
of  making  these  ideas  practically  effective,  as  well  as  of  giving 
them  a  better  formulation. 

The  thought  underlying  all  the  other  principles  was  that 
everything  should  be  done  in  its  natural  order,  or  in  the 
course  of  nature.  "  Since  nature  uses  a  particular  method, 
proper  to  herself,  with  which  the  understanding  of  man  is  in 
a  certain  connection,  regard  must  be  had  to  it  also  in  the  art 
of  teaching ;  for  all  unnatural  and  violent  or  forcible  teaching 
and  learning  is  harmful,  and  weakens  nature."  While  this 
was  a  direct  attempt  at  a  general  method,  it  was  not  based 
upon  psychological  principle,  but  rather  upon  general  and 
often  artificial  comparisons  with  the  phenomena  of  nature,  or 
upon  purely  superficial  resemblances  between  the  processes 
of  the  mind  and  the  processes  of  biological  development  in 
plant  or  in  animal. 

Others  of  these  principles,  important  as  reformatory  influ- 
ences and  as  permanent  truths,  can  only  be  suggested :  each 
thing:  should  be  oft  repeated ;  everything  first  in  the  mother 


480  History  of  Education 

tongue ;  everything  without  compulsion ;  nothing  should  be 
learned  by  rote ;  mutual  conformity  in  all  things  (i.e.  com- 
parative grammatical  study  of  the  languages) ;  first  the  thing 
itself,  and  afterward  the  explanation  of  the  thing ;  all  things 
through  experience  and  investigation  or  experiment. 

The  last  of  these  contains  the  essentials  of  the  Baconian 
reforms ;  the  next  to  the  last,  the  essentials  of  the  Pestaloz- 
zian  reforms ;  all  of  them  are  foreshadowings  of  the  Comen- 
ian  reforms. 

The  relation  which  these  principles  bear  to  the  entire  sense- 
realistic  movement  justifies  a  more  detailed  statement  than 
is  given  here.1  Historically  these  ideas  find  their  full  ex- 
emplification with  Comenius  rather  than  with  Ratke.  The 
latter,  however,  deserves  the  credit  of  their  early  formulation, 
though  he  worked  rather  as  a  visionary  and  unpractical  revo- 
lutionist than  as  a  successful  reformer. 

John  Amos  Comenius  (1592-1670).  —  Whether  considered 
from  the  point  of  view  of  theoretical  writings  or  from  that  of 
direct  treatment  of  schoolroom  problems,  Comenius  is  one  of 
the  most  important  representatives  of  the  realistic  movement 
as  well  as  one  of  the  leading  characters  in  the  history  of  edu- 
cation. Indeed,  the  most  scholarly  of  his  recent  biographies 
expresses  the  judgment  that  Comenius  is  "the  broadest-minded, 
the  most  far-seeing,  the  most  comprehensive,  and  withal  the 
most  practical  of  all  the  writers  who  have  put  pen  to  paper 
on  the  subject  of  education  ;  the  man  whose  theories  have 
been  put  into  practice  in  every  school  that  is  conducted  on 
rational  principles,  who  embodies  the  materialistic  tendencies 
of  our  '  modern  side '  instructors,  while  avoiding  the  narrow- 
ness of  their  reforming  zeal."  However,  this  panegyric  con- 
tains an  exaggeration  in  that,  while  the  writings  of  Comenius 
deserve  all  of  this  encomium,  his  actual  influence  on  his  own 

1  A  more  adequate  treatment  is  given  in  the  translation  of  Von  Raumer,  in 
Barnard's  German  Teachers  and  Educators,  pp.  319-347.  This  is  condensed  iq 
Quick's  Educational  Hefortners,  Ch.  IX. 


Realistic  Education  481 

and  following  generations  was  slight  save  in  one  respect,  — 
that  of  a  more  scientific  method  of  teaching  the  languages 
as  embodied  in  his  text-books.  For  almost  two  centuries 
even  the  very  knowledge  of  these  most  important  educational 
writings  ceased  to  exist;  consequently,  they  had  little  or  no 
direct  influence  upon  later  educational  reformers.  It  is  true 
that  Comenius's  ideas  "  have  been  put  into  practice  in  every 
schoolroom  conducted  on  rationalistic  principles,"  but  alto- 
gether aside  from  any  influence  exercised  by  Comenius ;  for  a 
knowledge  of  Comenius  and  his  writings  was  unknown  by 
those  who  practiced  his  principles.  The  greatness  of  Come- 
nius consists  more  in  his  early  formulation  of  those  princi- 
ples in  concrete  terms,  than  in  his  direct  influence  in  the 
introduction  of  such  principles  into  subsequent  educational 
practice.  After  his  own  generation,  it  was  not  until  near  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  these  remarkable  edu- 
cational writings  of  Comenius  were  again  called  to  public 
attention  by  the  early  German  historians  of  education,  and 
consequently  that  due  recognition  was  given  to  the  place 
of  Comenius  in  educational  reform.  His  ideas  of  educa- 
tion were  similar  to  those  of  Ratke,  to  whom,  however,  on 
account  of  the  secrecy  and  charlatanism  of  the  former,  Come- 
nius owed  little  or  nothing,  save  the  suggestion  of  a  "  natu- 
ral" method.  These  ideas,  common  to  both,  were  worked 
out  into  a  far  more  extensive  scheme  and  in  much  greater 
detail  by  Comenius.  They  were  more  consistent,  more  logi- 
cally presented,  and  far  more  modern  than  were  those  of 
the  earlier  innovator,  who  now  arouses,  as  he  did  in  his  own 
generation,  as  much  disgust  for  his  folly  and  chicanery  as 
he  does  respect  and  admiration  for  his  pioneer  work  in  edu* 
cational  thought. 

Comenius  lived  a  long,  industrious  life,  full  of  sacrifice  for 
his  religious  brethren  in  exile,  of  devotion  to  his  great  intel- 
lectual ideals,  of  trial  through  persecutions,  religious  and  per- 
sonal, and  finally  of  disappointment  in  the  fruition  of  his 
si 


482  History  of  Education 

hopes.  Few  biographies  of  educational  leaders  possess  more 
interest ;  but  reference  to  several  excellent  works  of  recent 
publication  must  answer  as  a  substitute  for  one  in  this  con- 
nection. The  most  immediate  interest  of  Comenius  through- 
out his  life,  first  as  pastor  of  their  largest  congregation,  and 
later  as  bishop  of  the  entire  commission  of  the  Moravian 
brethren,  then  in  ^xile  from  their  native  country,  was  in 
furthering  the  interests  of  Christianity,  of  the  Protestant 
cause,  and  especially  of  his  own  denomination.  In  his  later 
life  the  duty  of  protecting  his  religious  brethren  from  perse- 
cution and  extinction,  either  by  means  of  his  personal  influ- 
ence or  through  distribution  of  the  funds  raised  by  the  other 
Protestant  countries  of  Europe,  consumed  much  of  his  time 
and  energy. 

PURPOSE  OF  EDUCATION.  —  Religion  determined  for  Come- 
nius the  aim  and  general  conception  of  education.  Religion 
was  to  work  in  and  through  education  both  for  ultimate  ends 
and  for  the  immediate  regeneration  of  society.  In  these 
views  Comenius  did  not  go  beyond  the  other  educators,  both 
Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic,  of  his  own  and  preceding 
generations,  unless  it  was  in  the  more  thorough-going  belief 
in  education  as  a  social  as  well  as  an  individual  regenerating 
force. 

"The  ultimate  end  of  man  is  eternal  happiness  with  God," 
he  stated  as  the  primary  principle  of  the  Great  Didactic. 
The  purpose  of  education  was  to  assist  in  attaining  this  great 
end.  So  far,  all  the  educators  of  these  centuries  agreed.  But 
it  was  in  the  conception  of  education  as  a  means  that  they 
differed  so  widely.  Hitherto  education  assisted  toward  this 
end  by  tending  to  eradicate  the  natural  desires,  instincts,  and 
emotions,  and  by  furnishing  a  mental  and  moral  discipline 
tending  to  these  ends.  Comenius  worked  along  an  entirely 
new  line,  one  that  ultimately  became  the  line  of  modern 
educational  endeavor,  though  with  fundamental  purposes 
formulated  somewhat  differently.  With  Comenius  the  ulti- 


Realistic  Education  483 

mate  religious  end  was  to  be  obtained  through  moral  control 
over  one's  self,  and  this  in  turn  was  to  be  secured  by  knowl- 
edge of  one's  self  and  consequently  of  all  things  Knowl- 
edge, virtue,  and  piety,  in  this  order  of  their  acquisition,  were 
the  aims  of  education.  What  Sturm  and  the  Reformation 
educators  propounded  as  isolated  ends,  Comenius  unified  in 
a  logical  and  psychological  relationship,  and  gave  a  radically 
different  interpretation  of  the  initial  element,  —  knowledge, 
—  the  one  element  relating  directly  to  the  school.  This 
advance,  however,  was  so  radical  that  it  affected  vitally  every 
phase  of  education,  —  content,  organization,  method,  and 
text-books. 

CONTENT  OF  EDUCATION.  —  This  change  respecting  the 
subject-matter~of  education  can  best  be  presented  through 
'an  explanation  of  the  great  purpose  and  endeavor  of  the 
entire  life  of  Comenius  ;  for  his  religious  activity  and  his 
contributions  to  the  improvement  of  schoolroom  procedure 
were  both  immediate  duties  which  he  did  not  shirk.  But 
both  were  of  subordinate  importance  when  compared  with 
his  greatest  aspiration,  namely,  the  complete  reorganization 
of  human  knowledge,  along  Baconian  lines,  with  the  conse- 
quent expansion  of  that  knowledge  and  of  human  power  and 
happiness.  This  pansophic  movement  of  the  seventeenth 
century  produced  many  notable  attempts  at  reorganization. 
Of  these  the  Advancement  of  Learning  of  Bacon  and  the  En- 
cyclopedias of  Henry  Alsted  and  of  Campanella  were  notable 
examples.  Probably  both  Alsted  and  Campanella  had  greater 
influence  on  Comenius  than  did  Bacon.  This  idea  of  the 
encyclopedic  organization  of  human  knowledge  was  a  com- 
mon one  throughout  the  Middle  Ages;  but  the  execution 
attempted  by  Comenius  and  by  the  pansophic  writers  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  was  quite  different. 
Comenius's  aim  was  to  give  "an  accurate  anatomy  of  the 
universe,  dissecting  the  veins  and  limbs  of  all  things  in  such 
a  way  that  there  shall  be  nothing  that  is  not  seen,  and  that 


484  History  of  Education 

each  part  shall  appear  in  its  proper  place  and  without  con 
fusion."  Previous  encyclopedias  had  been  mere  collections 
of  facts ;  his  was  to  be  an  arrangement  of  facts  around 
universal  principles,  so  that  in  all  the  arts  and  sciences, 
starting  from  the  essential  point  of  the  universal  law  as  a 
basis,  study  could  proceed  from  what  is  best  known  by  slow 
degrees  to  what  is  less  familiar  until  all  knowledge  was 
compassed.  So  in  his  Janua  Rerum,  as  later  in  his  text- 
books, each  chapter  and  each  paragraph  was  to  lead  up  to 
the  next,  thus  embodying  his  universal  principle  of  method. 
Having  already  published  a  Physics  (1633),  which  gave 
such  a  synopsis  of  the  physical  universe,  and  a  Prodromus 
Pansophice,  or  Precursor  of  Pansophy  (1637),  he  constructed  a 
Janua  Rerum,  or  Gate  of  Phenomena,  which  was  to  perform 
for  the  universe  of  things  that  which  his  most  famous  book, 
the_/anua  Linguarum,  had  done  for  languages.  The  principles 
formulated  by  Comenius  as  underlying  all  of  this  work  are  the 
best  comment  both  concerning  its  advance  beyond  the  intel- 
lectual attitude  of  the  times  and  also  concerning  its  scientific 
character  from  the  present  point  of  view. 

APHORISMS 

1.  Universal  knowledge,  so  far  as  it  can  be  obtained  by 
man,  has  as  its  objects  God,  nature,  and  art. 

2.  A  perfect  knowledge  of  these  three  is  to  be  sought. 

3.  The  knowledge  of  things  is  perfect  when  it  is  full,  true, 
and  ordered. 

4.  Knowledge  is  true  when  things  are  apprehended  as  they 
exist  in  reality. 

5.  Things    are    apprehended    in    their    essential    nature 
when  the  manner  in  which  they  have  come   into  existence 
is  understood. 

6.  Each  object  comes  into  existence  in  accordance  with  its 
"  idea,"  that  is  to  say,  in  relation  to  a  certain  rational  con- 
ception through  which  it  can  be  what  it  is. 

7.  Therefore,  all  things  that  come  into  existence,  whether 


Realistic  Education  485 

they  are  the  works  of  God,  of  nature,  or  of  man,  do  so  in 
accordance  with  their  "ideas." 

8.  Art  borrows  the  "  ideas  "  of  its  productions  from  nature, 
nature  from  God,  and  God  from  himself. 

9.  In   fashioning  the  world,  therefore,  God   produces  an 
image  of  himself,  so  that  every  creature  stands  in  a  definite 
relation  to  its  creator. 

10.  As  all  things  share  in  the  "  ideas  "  of  the  Divine  mind, 
they  are  also  mutually  connected  and  stand  in  a  definite  rela- 
tion to  one  another. 

11.  It  follows  that  the  rational  conceptions  of  things  are 
identical,  and  only  differ  in  the  form  of  their  manifestation, 
existing  in  God  as  an  archetype,  in  nature  as  an  ectype,  and 
in  art  as  an  antitype. 

12.  Therefore  the  basis  of  producing  as  of  apprehending 
all  things  is  harmony. 

1 3.  The  first  requisite  of  harmony  is  that  there  should  be 
nothing  dissonant. 

14.  The  second  is  that  there  should  be  nothing  that  is  not 
consonant. 

15.  The  third  is  that  the  infinite  variety  of   sounds   and 
concords  should  spring  from  a  few  fundamental  ones,  and 
should  come  into  being  by  definite  and  regular  processes  of 
differentiation. 

16.  Therefore,  if  we  know  the  fundamental  conceptions 
and  the  modes  of   their   differentiation,  we  shall   know  all 
things. 

17.  Such   rational  conceptions   can   be    abstracted    from 
phenomena  by  means  of  a  certain  method  of  induction,  and 
must  be  posited  as  the  norms  of  phenomenal  existence. 

1 8.  These  norms  of  truth  must  be  abstracted  from  those 
objects  whose  nature  is  such  that  they  cannot  be  otherwise, 
and  which   are   at   every  one's  disposal  for  the  purpose  of 
making  experiments,  that  is  to  say,  from  natural  phenomena. 

The  knowledge  of  physical  phenomena  became,  for  him, 
the  most  important  object  of  study,  and  the  main  influence 
of  his  teachings  in  respect  to  subject-matter  was  the  introduc- 
tion of  such  material  into  the  school  books  actually  used, 
together  with  the  exposition  of  this  idea  in  all  his  works. 


486  History  of  Education 

On  the  other  hand  the  extent  to  which  Comenius  grasped 
the  modern  scientific  spirit  is  evidenced  by  his  use  of  the 
term  "  ideas."  This  he  used  in  true  Platonic  sense  and  with 
quite  as  scholastic  a  method  as  any  Schoolman  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  While  in  the  last  of  these  aphorisms  he  expressed  an 
approval  of  the  inductive  method  of  Bacon,  he  in  reality  has 
little  sympathy  with  the  experimental  method.  At  least, 
while  it  might  answer  for  purely  natural  knowledge,  he  held 
it  to  be  insufficient  for  his  Pansophia,  which  dealt  with  the 
whole  universe.  The  truth  was  that  Comenius  was  a  theo- 
logian and  applied  in  his  scientific  thinking  the  methods  of  a 
theologian.  Although  he  sought  to  give  natural  phenomena 
a  different  treatment,  and  in  his  arrangement  of  them  in  his 
text-books  he  did  succeed  in  following  the  inductive  plan, 
yet  for  the  most  part  he  used  merely  the  method  of  analogy 
instead  of  experimentation  and  usually  demonstrated  a  his- 
torical or  scientific  as  well  as  theological  point  by  quotation 
of  Scripture. 

The  English  friends  of  Comenius  urged  him,  as  the  only 
man  capable  of  undertaking  such  a  work,  to  organize  and 
conduct  a  school  similar  to  "  Solomon's  House  "  as  described 
in  Bacon's  New  Atlantis.  In  fact,  it  was  for  some  such  pur- 
pose that  Comenius  went  to  England  in  1641,  and  Parliament, 
which  had  summoned  him,  would  have  granted  him  the  sup- 
port and  the  school  had  not  the  Irish  rebellion  and  later  the 
Puritan  revolt  broken  out.  The  most  important  work  on 
pansophy  attempted  by  Comenius  was  destroyed  in  manu- 
script in  1657,  so  that  we  have  merely  his  text-books  and  his 
descriptive  writings  on  this  subject.  Some  of  his  later  works 
on  the  subject  were  completed  by  his  assistants  after  his 
death.  His  life's  ideal  was  the  reorganization  of  human 
knowledge  to  serve,  in  connection  with  a  universal  language 
constructed  artificially,  as  a  basis  for  the  reorganization  of 
human  society.  This  was  destined  to  remain  unfulfilled.  His 
persistent  efforts  coward  its  realization  resulted  only  in  arous- 


Realistic  Education  487 

ing  through  his  works  almost  a  general  enthusiasm  for  the 
propaganda  and  in  introducing  new  material  and  to  some 
extent  a  new  method  into  school  work.  Such  work,  however, 
continued  thereafter,  as  before,  to  be  chiefly  directed  toward 
the  study  of  the  Latin  tongue.  In  regard  to  the  first,  while 
many  scoffed,  many  held  that  through  this  effort  of  Comenius 
a  benefit  second  only  to  the  revelation  of  God's  word  was 
about  to  be  conferred  upon  the  human  race ;  in  regard  to  the 
second,  Comenius  was  known  to  the  two  succeeding  centuries 
only  as  the  writer  of  text-books  and  as  the  inventor  of  a  new 
method  of  studying  the  Latin  language. 

^METHOD.  —  The  general  thought  of  a  method  "  according 
to  nature,"  which  Comenius  advocated  and  applied  through- 
out all  his  writings,  must  be  distinguished  from  that  particular 
part  of  it  which  approximated  the  Baconian  induction  and 
formed  the  basal  idea  of  his  text-books.  Reference  has  been 
previously  made  to  Comenius's  failure  to  grasp  the  full  sig- 
nificance of  Bacon's  formulation  of  the  scientific  method  and 
of  his  preference  for  a  natural  method  founded  on  analogy, 
which  in  its  interpretation  was  never  fundamental  and  was 
frequently  superficial  and  fantastic.  Comenius  argued  that 
Bacon's  method  was  competent  to  distinguish  truth  from  fal- 
sity, but  that  it  applied  only  to  natural  phenomena,  while  pan- 
sophy  considered  the  entire  universe.  In  the  introduction 
of  his  first  pansophic  work  he  states  that  the  three  channels 
through  which  knowledge  comes  to  us  are  the  senses,  the 
intellect,  and  divine  revelation  ;  and  that  "  error  will  cease  if 
the  balance  between  them  be  preserved."  In  the  Great  Di- 
dactic Comenius  specifically  states  that  the  principles  of  that 
work  were  formulated  a  priori  and  does  not  even  mention 
Bacon  in  the  entire  work.  Essences  and  principles  find  place 
in  his  philosophy  as  in  that  of  the  fantastic  pseudo-scientists 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  his  Physics  the  world  is  constituted 
from  the  three  principles  of  matter,  spirit,  light;  while  the 
"  qualities  "  of  all  things  are  consistency  (salt),  oleosity  (sul- 


488  History  of  Education 

phur),  and  aquosity  (mercury).  Yet  despite  these  survivals 
of  the  mediaeval,  he  stands  distinctly  for  the  study  of  natural 
phenomena  and  the  dependence  upon  sense  perception  as  the 
source  of  knowledge  concerning  nature. 

Notwithstanding  this  partial  grasp  of  the  significance  of 
the  inductive  method  when  applied  to  the  investigation  of 
natural  phenomena,  when  it  came  to  the  practical  problems 
of  instruction  in  the  schoolroom,  Comenius  did  clearly  see  the 
importance  of  the  new  method  and  first  applied  it  to  the 
actual  processes  of  instruction.  This  is  a  field  where  Bacon 
was  much  more  of  a  stranger  than  was  Comenius  in  the  realm 
of  the  larger  philosophical  and  scientific  problems.  In  the 
chapter  on  the  Method  of  the  Sciences  Comenius  states  nine 
principles  of  method,  which,  though  they  may  be  deductively 
formulated,  yet  must  have  grown  out  of  his  own  long  experi- 
ence as  a  teacher.  These  principles  are  embodied  in  all  his 
texts.  Their  great  historical  importance  is  explained  by  the 
fact  that  all  more  modern  formulation  of  educational  pro- 
cedure has  but  established  similar  principles  on  a  more  scien- 
tific basis.  Since  it  was  the  concrete  embodiment  of  these 
ideas  that  led  to  the  remarkable  success  of  the  text-books 
and  to  the  beginning  of  radical  reforms  in  schoolroom  work, 
these  principles  also  explain  the  practical  importance  of  the 
texts.  They  are  stated  thus  :  — 

1.  Whatever  is  to  be  known  must  be  taught  (that  is,  by 
presenting  the  object  or  the  idea  directly  to  the  child,  not 
merely  through  its  form  or  symbol). 

2.  Whatever  is  taught  should  be  taught  as  being  of  prac- 
tical application  in  everyday  life  and  of  some  definite  use. 

3.  Whatever  is  taught  should  be  taught  straightforwardly, 
and  not  in  a  complicated  manner. 

4.  Whatever  is  taught  must  be  taught  with  reference  to 
its  true  nature  and   its  origin  ;    that  is  to   say,  through  its 
causes. 

5.  If   anything  is   to   be  learned,  its    general   principles 
must  first  be  explained.     Its  details  may  then  be  considered, 
and  not  till  then. 


Realistic  Education  489 

6.  All  parts  of  an  object  (or  subject),  even  the  smallest, 
without  a  single  exception,  must  be  learned  with  reference  to 
their    order,  their   position,  and    their  connection  with  one 
another. 

7.  All  things  must  be  taught  in  due  succession,  and  not 
more  than  one  thing  should  be  taught  at  one  time. 

8.  We  should  not  leave  any  subject  until  it  is  thoroughly 
understood. 

9.  Stress  should  be  laid  on  the  differences  which  exist 
between  things,  in  order  that  what  knowledge  of  them  is 
acquired  may  be  clear  and  distinct. 

The  application  of  these  principles  to  the  text-books  was 
far  more  successful  both  from  the  point  of  view  of  language 
study  and  from  that  of  the  study  of  phenomena  of  nature 
and  of  institutions  than  was  that  of  the  general  "  method  of 
nature  "  in  his  more  abstract  pansophic  works. 

TEXT-BOOKS.  —  Comenius  had  been  a  student  of  education 
from  his  early  school  days.  He  began  to  teach  upon  leaving 
the  university,  and  later  combined  the  supervision  of  schools 
with  his  pastoral  work.  Even  when  nearly  sixty  years  old 
(1650)  he  returned  to  the  care  of  schools  with  the  acceptance 
of  the  directorship  of  the  gymnasium  at  Saros-Patok,  Hun- 
gary, where  he  remained  for  several  years.  Consequently, 
his  text-books  were  not  the  work  of  a  mere  theorist  but  of 
one  who  combined,  as  no  one  before  him  had  ever  done,  a 
theoretical  knowledge  of  educational  problems,  derived  from 
contemplation  and  from  study,  with  the  practical  experience 
of  the  schoolroom.  His  objections  to  the  work  of  the  school 
were  those  noticed  by  all  of  the  reformers  and  educational 
writers  of  his  time ;  that  study  was  confined  to  the  Latin 
language  and  literature  ;  that  languages  were  taught  merely 
as  words,  with  no  attention  to  the  objects  or  ideas  back  of  the 
words  ;  that  this  study  was  approached  and  continued  wholly 
through  grammatical  rules  and  forms  ;  that  physical  force 
was  used  to  compel  attention  and  industry  and  to  punish 
failure  to  accomplish  tasks ;  that  there  was  neglect  of  all 


490  History  of  Education 

order  and  rational  progress  in  the  gradation  of  material ; 
that  all  this  resulted  in  making  the  schools  places  of  torture 
for  children  instead  of  places  of  interested  activity  and 
growth. 

Even  before  he  was  possessed  by  his  great  pansophio 
ideas,  Comenius  had  made  it  his  chief  endeavor  to  reforn 
schools  both  by  the  formulation  of  educational  principles  anc. 
by  the  construction  of  text-books  that  would  obviate  the 
above-mentioned  evils.  In  1631,  the  year  before  the  comple- 
tion of  the  Didactica,  Comenius  published  the  Janna  Lingua- 
rum  Reserata,  or  Gate  of  Languages  Unlocked.  This  was  his 
most  famous  book  and  alone  would  have  made  him  a  notable 
character  in  his  own  century.  Within  a  short  time  it  was 
published  in  Latin,  Greek,  Bohemian,  Polish,  German, 
Swedish,  Belgian,  English,  French,  Spanish,  Italian,  and 
Hungarian  of  the  European  languages,  and  into  Arabic, 
Turkish,  Russian,  and  Mongolian  of  the  Asiatic.  For  many 
generations  the  schoolboys  of  three  continents  thumbed  this 
book  as  their  primer  to  the  languages  instead  of  the  Donatus 
and  Alexander  of  preceding  generations.  And  very  differ- 
ent from  these  it  was,  though  in  some  respects  not  much  less 
difficult.  The  plan  of  the  book  was  simple  and  "  natural." 
Starting  with  several  thousand  of  the  most  common  Latin 
words  referring  to  familiar  objects,  the  plan  was  to  arrange 
them  into  sentences,  beginning  with  the  simplest  and  becom- 
ing progressively  more  complex,  and  in  such  a  manner  that 
a  series  of  related  subjects  would  be  presented,  the  whole 
presenting  a  brief  encyclopedic  survey  of  knowledge  as 
well  as  affording  a  vocabulary  and  a  working  knowledge  of 
simple  Latin. 

This  text  will  give  a  fair  conception  of  the  pansophic  ideal 
as  well  as  the  new  tendency  in  the  subject-matter  of  educa- 
tion. The  one  hundred  different  chapter  headings  included 
such  subjects  as  these,  introduced  in  the  order  given :  Origin 
of  the  World,  the  Elements,  the  Firmament,  Fire,  Meteors, 


Realistic  Education  491 

Water,  Earth,  Stones,  Metals,  Trees  and  Fruit,  Herbs  and 
Shrubs,  Animals  (in  several  chapters) ;  Man,  His  Body,  Ex- 
ternal Members,  Internal  Members,  Qualities  of  the  Body ; 
Diseases,  Ulcers,  and  Wounds  ;  External  Senses ;  Internal 
Senses ;  Mind,  The  Will,  The  Affections ;  The  Mechanic 
Arts  (in  several  chapters);  the  Home  and  its  Parts ;  Marriage; 
the  Family ;  State  and  Civic  Economy  (in  several  chapters) ; 
Grammar,  Rhetoric,  Dialectic,  and  the  various  branches  of 
knowledge ;  Ethics ,  Games ;  Death,  Burial,  Providence  of 
God ;  the  Angels.  Care  was  taken  that  every  grammatical 
structure  should  be  presented  so  that  a  complete  grammatical 
knowledge  would  be  developed  inductively  by  the  skillful 
teacher.  Each  page  gave  in  parallel  column  the  Latin  sen- 
tence arid  the  vernacular  equivalent,  and  the  instruction 
dealt  with  material  that,  in  its  elementary  form  at  least,  was 
within  the  experience  of  the  child.  The  chief  defect  of  the 
book,  one  arising  from  a  violation  of  a  principle  emphasized 
by  Comenius,  was  the  failure  to  repeat  the  words,  the  object 
being  to  us?  ~-icli  word  only  once.  Besides  necessitating  i 
vast  amount  of  repetition  and  arousing  the  dislike  of  the 
pupil,  it  had  the  disadvantage  of  giving  only  one  meaning  to 
the  word  (though  that  was  always  the  root  signification),  and 
only  one  construction.  While  the  idea  had  been  suggested 
by  Ratich,  and  ineffectually  executed  independently  by  a 
Jesuit  teacher,  William  Budaeus,  this  was  the  first  successful 
attempt  at  the  construction  of  text-books  according  to  modern 
and  to  psychological  principles.  And  after  the  improvements 
made  by  Comenius  himself,  little  further  advance  was  made 
for  a  century  and  a  half.  Thejanua  was  the  work  of  three 
years'  labor  of  the  author,  but  in  reality  it  was  the  product  of 
the  centuries  since  the  opening  of  the  Renaissance. 

In  1633  Comenius  published  the  Vestibulnm  (Entrance 
Hall}  as  an  easy  introduction  to  the  Gate,  which,  though  far 
simpler  than  the  previous  formal  grammatical  texts  which 
were  impossible  of  any  mastery  save  a  verbal  one,  had  yet 


492  History  of  Education 

proved  too  difficult  for  beginners.  Later,  additional  texts 
were  added.  The  Atrium  was  an  expansion  of  the  Janua, 
following  the  same  plan,  treating  of  the  same  subjects  in 
greater  detail,  and  also  giving  more  attention  to  grammar. 
An  accompanying  grammar  written  in  Latin  was  now  to  be 
used.  In  the  final  book  of  the  series,  the  Palace  or  the  The- 
saurus, a  summary  of  Latin  literature,  was  given.  Through 
selection  of  various  portions  of  Caesar,  Sallust,  Cicero,  etc., 
the  substance  of  this  literature,  especially  as  it  dealt  with 
subjects  of  interest  from  the  Comenian  point  of  view,  could 
be  given  with  the  omission  of  much  of  the  material  objection- 
able to  Comenius  and  certainly  detrimental  as  used  in  the 
colloquies  and  school  presentations  of  the  times.  As  Co- 
menius outlined  his  school  plan,  about  six  months  should  be 
given  to  the  Vestibulum,  one  year  to  the  Janua,  about  the 
same  time  to  the  Atrium,  and  three  years  to  the  Palatium, 

The  most  remarkable  and  most  successful  of  all  the  Come- 
nian texts  was  an  adaptation  of  the  Janua  Linguarum,  the 
Orbis  Pictns,  published  in  1657.  In  this  text  the  method  of 
dealing  with  objects  instead  of  with  mere  symbols  or  words 
was  carried  to  its  logical  conclusion  in  the  introduction  of  the 
objects  themselves  by  means  of  pictures.  But  the  Orbis  Pictus 
Sensualium —  The  World  of  Sensible  Things  Pictured — was 
of  greater  importance  than  merely  the  first  illustrated  text-book 
for  children,  for  the  method  of  dealing  with  things  and  of  lead- 
ing by  inductive  process  to  a  generalized  knowledge,  was  con- 
sistently carried  out.  While  the  text  was  substantially  that 
of  ihejanua,  each  chapter  was  headed  by  a  rather  compli- 
cated picture  in  which  the  various  objects  were  numbered 
with  reference  to  specific  lines  in  the  text.  A  page  of  this 
remarkable  text  is  reproduced  as  indicating  in  a  concrete 
way,  when  compared  with  any  of  the  Latin  grammars  then 
in  ordinary  use,  all  the  revolutionary  educational  ideals  of 
Comenius. 

THE  ORGANIZATION  OF   SCHOOLS.  —  One  other  phase  of 


A  School,  i. 
if  a  Shop,  in  which 
Young.  Wits 

wfajbierfd  t&  Virtue,  and 
it  it  Jtftinguijh'd  into  Forms. 

We  Matter,1  2,  ~ 
fittethin  a  Chair,   3. 
t£e  Scholars,  4. 
in  Forms,  j. 
kt  teacbeth,  they  harn. 

Sftne  things 

toft  itirit  dc<wn  before  tbem- 
Chalk  on  '4-  Table,  ^* 

Somefit 

a*TaMet  andiurite,  7. 
j^t  mendetb  their  Faults,  8, 

Someftandandrckearfefbixgs 
temmitteJ  to  memory,  9, 

§amt  tfdk  together ',  JO*  and 
behave  themfefv 


Sebota,  i. 
eft  Officina,  in  qua 
No-velli  Auimi 
formantur  ad  virtutemr 
&  diftinguhur  in  Clafieu 

Preceptor,   2. 
fedet  in  Cathedra,  3; 
Ififcipuli,   4. 
;n  Subfelliit,  5. 
illedocet,  hi  difcunt. 

Quzdam 

pnefcribuntur  illis 
Crtta  in  TabtllQ,  6. 

-Quidam  fedent 
ad  Menfam,   &  fcribunt,  7. 
ipfe  corrigit,  8.  Men  das.   ' 

Quidam  ftant,   &  recitan t 
mandata  memoriaj,   9. 

Qnidamconfabulantur,  10, 
ac  gerunt  fe 


Realistic  Education  493 

these  educational  ideas  deserves  brief  mention,  that  is,  the 
organization  of  schools.  In  this  respect,  as  well  as  in  those 
previously  noticed,  Comenius  was  quite  two  centuries  ahead 
of  his  contemporaries.  In  his  Didactica  Magna,  and  more 
especially  in  the  Outline  of  the  Pansophic  School  for  the 
Patak  gymnasium,  this  subject  is  treated.  As  in  the  case  of 
the  text-books,  so  also  in  this  latter  writing,  the  gymnasium  or 
secondary  school  alone  is  dealt  with.  But  these  indicate  in 
detail  the  character  of  the  work  that  would  be  included  in 
other  phases  of  the  educational  system.  The  work  of  the 
pansophic  school,  divided  into  seven  classes,  is  indicated  in 
detail.  Over  the  door  of  each  class  is  placed  an  inscription  ; 
over  that  of  the  first  class,  the  Vestibular,  "  Let  no  one  enter 
who  cannot  read  " ;  over  the  second,  the  Janual,  "  Let  no 
one  enter  who  is  ignorant  of  mathematics  " ;  over  the  Atrial, 
"  Let  no  one  enter  who  cannot  speak  "  ;  over  the  Philosophi- 
cal, "  Let  no  one  ignorant  of  history  enter  here  " ;  over  the 
Logical,  "  Let  no  one  enter  who  is  ignorant  of  natural  phi- 
losophy "  ;  over  the  Political,  "  Let  no  one  enter  who  cannot 
reason " ;  over  the  Theological,  "  Let  no  one  enter  who  is 
irreligious." 

Two  grades  of  school  were  to  precede  the  gymnasium : 
first,  the  infant  school ;  second,  the  vernacular  school.  Pre- 
vious to  the  writing  of  the  Didactica,  Comenius  had  written 
The  School  of  the  Mother's  Knee,  in  which  there  is  a  remark- 
able foreshadowing  of  the  kindergarten.  The  purpose  of  the 
book  was  to  indicate  to  mothers  how  they  could  care  for  the 
early  education  of  their  own  children.  The  pansophic  ideals 
control  even  here,  for  the  infant  is  to  be  instructed  in  history, 
geography,  even  metaphysics,  as  well  as  to  be  cared  for 
physically  and  to  be  trained  in  games,  sports,  and  manners. 
But  by  these  high-sounding  names  Comenius  meant  a  very 
feasible  and  desirable  thing ;  namely,  that  the  child's  simple 
experience  as  to  locality,  time,  and  casual  relationship  of 
many  events  could  be  and  should  be  made  quite  definite  even 


494  History  of  Education 

before  the  sixth  year,  and  independent  of  formal  instruction 
by  means  of  books.  The  Vernacular  School  should  comprise 
the  period  from  the  sixth  to  the  twelfth  years,  and  was  rather 
a  substitute  for  than  a  preliminary  to  the  gymnasium,  de 
signed  for  those  who  could  not  obtain  the  higher  education. 
As  to  method  and  subject-matter  this  school  resembled  the 
Latin  School.  The  series  of  texts  prepared  for  it  by  Come- 
nius  were  in  the  Czech  language  and  consequently  never 
received  wide  circulation,  even  if  they  were  ever  printed. 
None  at  least  have  survived.  Above  the  secondary  school 
was  to  come  the  University,  where  every  subject  could  be 
pursued  as  in  the  gymnasium.  Above  the  University,  re- 
versing the  use  of  terms  as  we  now  employ  them,  was  the 
College  of  Light,  an  institution  for  scientific  investigation  of 
every  subject,  similar  to  the  Solomon's  House  of  the  New 
Atlantis. 

THE  GREAT  DIDACTIC.  —  As  through  all  of  the  activities 
of  this  great  leader  ran  the  one  dominant  motive  found  in  the 
pansophic  ideal  of  the  regeneration  of  society  through  the 
reorganization  of  knowledge,  so  throughout  all  his  educational 
work  ran  the  fundamental  conception  of  education  early 
worked  out.  Though  Comenius  was  the  first  even  approxi- 
mately to  apply  in  a  formal  way  the  inductive  method  to  edu- 
cation, the  foundation  of  his  educational  views  and  the  basis  of 
all  his  educational  activities  were  very  early  determined  and 
his  later  work  was  simply  that  of  amplification.  For  though 
he  has  more  than  a  hundred  treatises  and  text-books  to  his 
credit,  yet  they  are  all  summed  up  in  his  one  great  theoreti- 
cal treatise  which  was  one  of  his  earliest  educational  writings. 
The  Didactic  Magna  was  completed  by  1632,  though  not  pub- 
lished in  a  Latin  translation  until  1657,  and  not  printed  in 
the  language  in  which  it  was  written  until  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  This  work  is  certainly  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  educational  treatises  ever  composed.  Though 
essays  or  books  on  didactics  were  among  the  most  numerous 


Realistic  Education  495 

of  the  publications  of  those  times,  the  Great  Didactic  is  a 
remarkable  variant  from  the  ordinary  type.  Both  its  ideas, 
or  principles,  and  -its  arrangement  are  strikingly  modern.  On 
the  contrary,  the  form  in  which  the  ideas  are  expressed,  as 
well  as  the  particular  interpretations  of  the  method  used,  are 
thoroughly  colored  by  the  theological  character  of  the  age 
and  by  the  professional  training  of  the  author.  So  sane  and 
far-seeing  are  the  precepts  of  this  work  that  it  may  even  yet 
be  read  with  greater  immediate  profit  to  the  teacher,  suffi- 
ciently intelligent  to  avoid  many  minor  errors,  than  the 
majority  of  contemporary  educational  writings.  Some  of  the 
main  principles  of  the  Didactic  have  been  mentioned,  but  so 
solid  a  foundation  is  laid  for  the  educational  development  of 
the  succeeding  centuries, — as  that  foundation  in  turn  rests 
upon  the  bed  rock  of  the  Renaissance  and  Reformation  move- 
ment,—  that  it  is  quite  worth  while,  in  conclusion,  to  give  the 
entire  table  of  contents. 

SUBJECTS   OF   THE    CHAPTERS 

I.  Man  is   the  highest,  the  most  absolute,  and  the  most 
excellent  of  things  created. 

II.  The  ultimate  end  of  man  is  beyond  this  life. 

III.  This  life  is  but  a  preparation  for  eternity. 

IV.  There  are  three  stages  in  the  preparation  for  eternity : 
to  know  one's  self  (and  with  one's  self  all  things);  to  rule 
one's  self ;  and  to  direct  one's  self  to  God. 

V.  The  seeds  of  these  three  (learning,  virtue,  religion)  are 
naturally  implanted  in  us. 

VI.  If  a  man  is  to  be  produced,  it  is  necessary  that  he  be 
formed  by  education. 

VII.  A  man  can  most  easily  be  formed  in  early  youth,  and 
cannot  be  formed  properly  except  at  this  age. 

VIII.  The  young  must  be  educated  in  common,  and  foi 
this  schools  are  necessary. 

IX.  All  the  young  of  both  sexes  should  be  sent  to  school 

X.  The  instruction  given  in  schools  should  be  universal. 

XI.  Hitherto  there  have  been  no  perfect  schools. 


496  History  of  Education 

XII.  It  is  possible  to  reform  schools. 

XIII.  The  basis  of  school  reform  must  be  exact  order  in 
all  things. 

XIV.  The  exact  order   of  instruction  must  be  borrowed 
from  nature. 

XV.  The  basis  of  the  prolongation  of  life. 

XVI.  The  universal  requirements  of  teaching  and  of  learn- 
ing ;  that  is  to  say,  a  method  of  teaching  and  of  learning  with 
such  certainty  that  the  desired  result  must  of  necessity  follow. 

XVII.  The    principles    of    facility    in    teaching    and    in 
learning. 

XVIII.  The  principles  of  thoroughness  in  teaching  and  in 
learning. 

XIX.  The    principles    of    conciseness    and    rapidity    in 
teaching. 

XX.  The  method  of  the  sciences,  specifically. 

XXI.  The  method  of  the  arts. 

XXII.  The  method  of  languages. 

XXIII.  The  method  of  morals. 

XXIV.  The  method  of  instilling  piety. 

XXV.  If  we  wish  to  reform  schools  in  accordance  with 
the   laws   of  true  Christianity,  we  must  remove  from   them 
books   written   by  pagans,  or,  at  any  rate,  must    use  them 
with  more  caution  than  hitherto. 

XXVI.  Of  school  discipline. 

XXVII.  Of  the  fourfold  division  of  schools,  based  on  age 
and  acquirements. 

XXVIII.  Sketch  of  the  Mother-School. 

XXIX.  Sketch  of  the  Vernacular  School. 

XXX.  Sketch  of  the  Latin  School. 

XXXI.  Of  the  University,  of    traveling  students,  of  the 
College  of  Light. 

XXXII.  Of  the  universal  and  perfect  order  of  instruction. 

XXXIII.  Of  the   things   requisite  before   this   universal 
method  can  be  put  into  practice. 

Effects  of  Sense-realism  on  Schools.  —  At  any  time,  the 
response  made  to  educational  theory  by  the  concrete  practices 
of  the  school  is  necessarily  slow  and  indirect.  For  those 
who  formulate  the  advanced  theory  are  seldom  those  who 
control  the  schools;  the  practical  administrator  is  ever 


Realistic  Education  497 

loath  to  be  considered  a  theorist,  that  is,  one  recognizing  a 
new  theory  instead  of  practicing  an  old  one ;  and  the  teacher 
is  ever  loath  to  add  new  burdens  or  form  new  habits,  in 
learning  to  do  old  things  in  a  new  way. 

On  the  other  hand,  Ratke,  Comenius,  even  Bacon,  were 
but  exponents  of  a  thought  movement  that  was  affecting 
many;  they  were  leaders  in  the  formulation  of  the  new 
thought  rather  than  originators  of  it.  As  with  these  men, 
so  with  the  other  leaders  of  advanced  thought  of  the 
seventeenth  century, — their  work  was  performed  outside 
of  the  university,  which  had  little  sympathy  with  the  new 
thought.  Neither  Descartes,  Hobbes,  Locke,  or  Leibnitz  of 
the  philosophers,  nor  Harvey  and  Boyle  of  the  scientists,  nor 
Bacon  as  representative  of  both  philosophy  and  science,  was 
in  close  contact  with  the  universities.  So  it  was  in  the  sec- 
ondary schools  and  in  independent  institutions  that  the  new 
ideas  were  realized.  In  1619  the  first  academy  of  natural 
science  was  founded  at  Rostock.  Under  Frederick  the 
Great  (r.  1740-1786)  the  Berlin  Academy  became  a  powerful 
exponent  of  the  new  thought. 

After  the  close  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  (1648),  the  old 
academies  for  the  nobles  (Ritterakademien,  see  p.  389)  again 
became  influential,  and  now  as  exponents  of  the  new  ideas, 
rationalistic  and  practical,  as  opposed  to  the  scholastic  for- 
malism of  university  and  gymnasium.  This,  however,  was  a 
foreign  culture  which  did  not  affect  at  all  the  masses  of  the 
people.  Here  realism  found  its  first  exposition,  based  more 
upon  the  social-realism  of  Montaigne  and  the  popular  ideals 
of  the  French  aristocracy,  then  dominant  throughout  Europe, 
than  upon  the  scientific  realism  of  Bacon  and  Comenius. 

From  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  text-books 
of  Comenius  had  come  into  common  use  in  the  gymnasia  of 
the  German  cities,  but  rather  as  aids  to  Latin  study  than  for 
their  scientific  content.  The  first  schools  to  embody  the 
realism  of  Comenius,  emphasizing  more  the  religious  than 

2K 


498  History  of  Education 

the  scientific  side,  were  those  of  the  pietistic  movement  as  it 
centered  around  Hermann  Francke  (1663-1727)  and  Spener 
(1635-1700).  Pietism  was  a  reaction  quite  as  much  against 
the  profligacy  and  extravagance  of  rationalism  as  typified  in 
the  ritterakademien  as  against  the  formalism  of  the  classical 
schools.  But  the  rationalistic  and  the  pietistic  school  were 
at  one  in  their  opposition  to  the  dominant  classicism  and 
formalism,  and  in  their  advocacy  of  the  realistic  studies  and 
the  use  of  the  vernacular.  Beginning  in  1692  Francke  es- 
tablished, at  Halle,  a  group  of  educational  and  charitable 
institutions  of  very  wide  scope  and  of  extended  influence. 
With  a  constituency  drawn  wholly  from  the  middle  and  lower 
class  people,  —  a  large  orphan  asylum  was  a  part  of  the  insti- 
tution, —  Francke  aimed  to  combine  a  practical  preparation 
for  life  and  a  religious  influence  with  a  school  training  neces- 
sarily strong  in  the  realistic  studies.  His  achievement  was 
a  demonstration  of  Comenian  ideals ;  a  combination  of  Chris- 
tianity and  practical  training,  with  formal  school  work.  A 
seminary  for  the  training  of  teachers,  instituted  as  a  part  of 
his  general  foundations,  assisted  materially  in  the  spread  of 
his  ideas  in  many  schools,  especially  those  of  Prussia,  both 
of  old  and  new  foundations. 

The  Real  Schools  (Real-schuleri)  of  Germany,  which  era- 
body  most  completely  the  realistic  educational  movement,  date 
from  1747,  in  which  year  Hecker,  a  pupil  of  Francke,  estab- 
lished the  oekonomisck-mathematische  Real-scJiule  at  Berlin. 
The  curriculum  of  this  school  included  the  German,  French, 
and  Latin  languages,  writing,  drawing,  history,  geography, 
geometry,  arithmetic,  mechanics,  architecture,  religion,  and 
ethics.  Within  a  comparatively  short  time  the  leading  com- 
mercial cities  of  the  German  countries  established  similar 
schools.  During  the  later  part  of  the  century,  under  the 
influence  of  the  "  naturalistic  "  movement  (Chapter  X),  these 
schools  were  incorporated  as  a  component  part  of  *he  Ger 
man  school  system. 


Realistic  Education  499 

The  Academies  in  England.  — In  England  the  introduction 
of  the  "real  studies"  was  bound  up  with  the  history  of  the 
"  academies  "  as  those  institutions  were  developed  by  the  non- 
conforming  churches.  The  beginning  of  this  movement  is 
connected  with  the  humanistic  realism  of  Milton,  who  stylec 
the  institution  described  in  his  Tractate  an  academy.  With 
the  downfall  of  the  Puritan  protectorate  and  the  restoration 
of  the  Stuart  monarchy,  the  dissenting  clergymen,  some  two 
thousand  in  all,  were  expelled  from  their  parishes  (1662),  and 
shortly  afterward  the  dissenters  were  excluded  from  the  pub- 
lic schools  and  the  universities.  This  gave  both  a  teaching 
staff  and  a  constituency  to  a  new  type  of  educational  institu- 
tions, which  for  a  time  had  but  an  indefinite  organization  and 
unsubstantial  existence,  but  which,  after  the  toleration  act  of 
1689,  became  a  definite  part  of  the  English  educational  scheme. 
Though  these,  as  well  as  all  other  educational  institutions  of 
England,  had  only  an  ecclesiastical  and  private  support,  they 
continued  to  perform  an  ever  widening  function  in  the  educa- 
tional life  of  the  people,  until,  with  the  disappearance  of  reli- 
gious disabilities,  they  became,  as  a  type,  indistinguishable  in 
the  multiplicity  of  secondary  schools  during  the  early  nine- 
teenth century. 

As  was  to  be  expected,  the  founders  of  these  institutions  of 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  had  little  sympathy 
with  the  narrow  and  restricted  education  that  produced  their 
illiberal  persecutors ;  hence,  the  new  institutions  provided  for 
a  much  broader  training  through  a  curriculum  that  included 
many  of  the  new  "  real  "  studies.  Preparation  for  the  minis- 
try was  yet  a  prominent,  though  by  no  means  the  exclusive, 
purpose  of  these  schools,  hence  the  classical  languages  formed 
a  prominent  part  if  not  the  basal  part  of  the  course  of  study. 
To  these  were  added  a  variety  of  subjects,  varying  with  the 
institution,  including  French,  Italian,  Hebrew,  logic,  rhetoric, 
ethics,  metaphysics,  history,  economics,  oratory,  theology,  nat- 
ural philosophy,  anatomy,  geography,  geometry,  algebra,  sur 


500  History  of  Education 

veying,  trigonometry,  conic  sections,  celestial  mechanics,  and 
even  shorthand.  One  subject  that  was  given  especial  empha- 
sis in  all  of  these  institutions  was  that  of  English,  and  the 
instruction  in  all  of  the  subjects  came  to  be  given  in  the  ver- 
nacular. Of  one  academy  it  is  specified  that  in  addition  to 
the  usual  curriculum  "all  the  classes  were  exercised  at  times 
in  land  surveying,  dialling,  making  almanacks,  and  dissecting 
animals."  No  more  striking  evidences  of  the  realistic  tendency 
could  be  found  in  the  theoretical  discussions  of  the  subject. 

Such  institutions  took  the  place  of  both  secondary  schools 
and  universities  for  the  nonconformists,  and  offered  a  more 
direct  preparation  for  the  practical  occupations  of  life  than  did 
the  classical  public  schools.  For  the  Church,  the  university, 
and  the  State,  however,  the  old  type  of  institutions  yet  served 
exclusively.  The  influence  of  the  writings  of  John  Locke  on 
education  ( Chapter  IX)  served  to  further  the  interest  in  the  new 
educational  tendency,  and  his  Thoughts  became  almost  a  hand- 
book or  a  charter  for  the  academies. 

In  America. — With  the  growth  of  the  minor  dissenting 
bodies  in  the  American  colonies  a  similar,  though  until  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  more  rudimentary,  institu- 
tion grew  up.  These  bodies  were  especially  strong  in  the 
middle  colonies,  and  there  these  new  institutions  found  a  home. 
Even  in  New  England  the  Latin  grammar  schools  began  to 
make  provision,  from  no  theoretical  educational  reasons,  for 
the  practical  economic  interests  of  the  people.  In  most  of 
the  seaport  towns  of  all  the  colonies,  branches  of  practical 
mathematics,  especially  surveying  and  navigation,  were  intro- 
duced even  in  the  late  seventeenth,  certainly  by  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  Not  until  this  later  period,  however, 
was  a  typical  "  real-school "  introduced  and  the  term  "  acad- 
emy "  used.  This  was  the  "  Academy  and  Charitable  School 
of  Pennsylvania,"  later  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  which 
was  suggested  by  Benjamin  Franklin  in  1743  and  opened  in 
1751.  Three  schools  were  included  in  this  academy,  a  Latin, 


Realistic  Education  501 

an  English,  and  a  mathematical.  Franklin  in  his  writings, 
which  exalted  practical  economics  into  a  philosophy  of  life 
for  a  new  people,  did  much  to  further  a  scheme  of  education 
which  had  much  in  common  with  the  educational  theories  of 
the  sense-realists.  While  the  philosophical  basis  might  have 
been  quite  different,  in  its  concrete  embodiment  it  was  al- 
most identical  with  the  "real-school"  of  Germany.  After 
the  Revolutionary  War,  the  academies  became  the  typical 
educational  institutions  of  the  American  states.  By  this  time 
several  other  momentous  forces,  besides  the  realistic  educa- 
tional philosophy,  were  at  work  to  produce  revolutionary 
changes  in  education. 

The  Universities  responded  much  less  quickly  than  the 
secondary  institutions  to  the  new  educational  ideas.  The 
theological-classical  scholasticism  controlled  the  German 
universities  throughout  the  seventeenth  century;  but  in 
1094  the  University  of  Halle  was  founded  chiefly  as  a  pro- 
test against  the  narrowness  of  the  old.  Halle  is  considered 
the  first  modern  university,  for  here  first  were  the  "real' 
subjects  taught,  with  the  new  methods  and  in  the  modern 
tongue.  Francke,  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  real- 
schools,  and  Thomasius,  who  had  been  expelled  from  Leipzig 
because  of  their  too  liberal  ideas,  made  Halle  the  center  of 
the  new  influence.  The  custom  of  using  German  in  the  uni- 
versity lecture  room,  introduced  by  Thomasius,  who  also  pub- 
lished the  first  German  magazine,  soon  spread,  as  did  also  the 
university  teaching  of  the  natural  sciences  and  a  more  liberal 
philosophy.  In  fact,  the  German  university  ideal  of  "  freedom 
of  teaching  and  freedom  of  study"  first  found  its  embodiment 
in  the  foundation  of  Halle.  In  1737  the  University  of  Got- 
tingen  became  a  second  center  of  these  same  influences.  By 
the  close  of  the  century  the  conquest  of  all  the  universities, 
at  least  of  Protestant  Germany,  was  accomplished. 

The  conservative  English  universities  responded  much  less 
juickly  and   much   less   thoroughly  to  the   new  influences 


502  History  of  Education 

During  the  professorship  of  Isaac  Newton  (1669-1702)  and 
the  headmastership  of  Richard  Bentley  (1740-1742),  Cam- 
bridge was  given  the  strong  mathematical  bent  which  it  has 
ever  retained,  and  the  mathematical  and  physical  sciences 
were  fostered.  During  the  eighteenth  century  a  number  of 
regius  professorships  in  history  and  the  sciences  were  founded 
by  the  Georges.  But  there  was  no  such  renovation  of  the 
university  by  the  new  spirit,  as  in  Germany,  until  late  in  the 
nineteenth  century. 

REFERENCES 
Humanistic  Realism, 

Barnard,  English  Pedagogy,  Ser.  I,  pp.  145-190. 

Barnard,  Rabelais  and  his  Educational  Ideal,  in  American  Journal  of  Edu- 
cation, XIV,  p.  147. 

Besant,  Rabelais.     (In  Foreign  Classics  for  English  Readers.) 

Brooks.  Phillips,  Essays  and  Addresses :  Milton  as  an  Educator. 

Browning,  Oscar,  History  of  Educational  Theories,  Chs.  V,  VI.  (New 
York,  1888.) 

Browning,  Milton's  Tractate  on  Education.     (Cambridge,  1883.) 

Compayre",  History  of  Pedagogy,  Ch.  V. 

Morris,  Milton's  Tractate  on  Education.     (London,  1895.) 

Munroe,  The  Educational  Ideal,  Ch.  II.     (Boston,  1895.) 

Montaigne. 
Barnard,  Montaigne  on  Learning  and  Education,  in  American  Journa* 

of  Education,  XIV,  p.  461. 

Browning,  History  of  Educational  Theories,  p.  91. 
Compayre',  History  of  Pedagogy,  p.  100. 
Hazlitt,  The  Works  of  Montaigne,  Introduction. 
Laurie,  Teachers'1  Guild  Addresses.     (London,  1892.)     Montaigne, 
Montaigne,  Essays,  Bk.  I,  Chs.  XXIV,  XXV;  Bk.  II,  Ch.  VIII. 
Munroe,  The  Educational  Ideal,  Ch.  V. 
Owen,  Skeptics  of  the  French  Renaissance. 

Rector,  Montaigne  on  Education  of  Children.     (New  York,  1899.) 
Owen,  Skeptics  of  the  French  Renaissance.     (London,  1893.) 
Quick,  Educational  Reformers,  Ch.  VI. 

Sense-Realism . 

Browning,  Educational  Theories,  Ch.  IV. 
Barnard,  English  Pedagogy,  Second  Series,  pp.  177-324. 


Realistic  Education  503 

Barnard,  Bacon,  American  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  V,  p.  663. 

Barnard,  Peter  Ramus,  American  Journal  of  Education,  Vol.  XXX,  p  451, 

Barnard,  German  Teachers  and  Educators,  pp.  273-418. 

Brown,  The  Making  of  our  Middle  Schools.     (New  York,  1903.) 

Compayre',  History  of  Pedagogy,  Ch.  VI. 

Hanus,  Educational  Aims,  Ch.  VIII.     (New  York,  1899.) 

Keatinge,  The  Great  Didactic  of  Comenius.     (London,  1896.) 

Laurie,  John  Amos  Comenius.     (Cambridge,  1887.) 

Laurie,  Development  of  Educational  Opinion,  Chs.  X,  XI. 

Mark,  Educational  Theories  in  England,  Chs.  Ill,  V.     (London.  1899  ) 

Monroe,  Comenius  and  the  Beginnings  of  Educational  Reform.      (New 

York,  1900.) 

Monroe,  Comenius^  School  of  Infancy .     (Boston,  1896.) 
Munroe,  The  Educational  Ideal,  Ch.  IV. 
Quick,  Educational  Reformers,  Chs.  VIII,  IX,  X. 
Watson,  Richard  Mulcaster  and  his  Elementarie.     (New  York,  1899.) 


TOPICAL  QUESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  INVESTIGATION 

1 .  What  were  the  views  of  Erasmus  concerning  the  selection,  method 
of  study,  and  the  use  or  purpose  of  literary  material  for  the  schoolroom? 

2.  Write  an  analysis  of  Milton's  Tractate  on  Education.     To  what 
extent  and  in  what  respects  does  it  represent  a  departure  from  the  domi- 
nant education  of  the  schools  ?    What  criticism  can  you  offer  on  Milton's 
scheme? 

3.  To  what  extent  does  Montaigne  in  his  writings  represent  the  ideals 
of  the  narrow  humanists? 

4.  To  what  extent  does  the  idea  of  education  through  contact  with  the 
world  and  through  travel  find  justification  or  condemnation  in  the  literature 
on  education  ? 

5.  What  descriptions  or  discussions  of  this  same  topic  can  you  find  in 
literature  in  general? 

6.  What  are  Montaigne's  arguments  against  the  narrow  humanistic 
education  dominant  in  his  times? 

7.  Compare  the  conception  of  education  held  by  Montaigne  with  that 
held  by  Ascham. 

8.  In  what  respects  does  Montaigne's  view  of  education  differ  from 
that  of  Milton  ?    Of  Rabelais  ?    Of  Erasmus  ?    Of  Comenius  ?     Of  Locke  ? 
Of  Rousseau? 

9.  To  what  extent  are  Montaigne's  views  of  education  borrowed  from 
those  held  by  Greeks  or  Romans? 


504  History  of  Education 

10.  Give  an  account  of  the  educational  views  and  works  of  Peter  Ramus 
Of  Ludovico  Vives.    Of  Sir  William  Petty.    Of  Daniel  Defoe.     Of  Samuel 
Hartlib.     Of  Charles  Hoole. 

1 1 .  Make  a  study  of  the  "  pansophic  "  ideas  of  the  seventeenth  century 

12.  In  what  respects  do  the  views  of  Richard  Mulcaster  coincide  with 
those  of  the  realists?     Give  an  acco""*-  of  the  educational  work  and  writ- 
ings of  Mulcaster. 

13.  What  were  the  forces  opposing  and  what  those  favoring  the  intro- 
duction of  the  vernacular  into  educational  work  in  any  one  country  ? 

14.  What  were  the  arguments  for  the  educational  use  of  the  vernacular 
advanced  by  its  early  advocates,  such  as  Mulcaster,  Ratich,  the  Port  Roy- 
alists, etc.  ? 

15.  What  were  the  views  concerning  learning  and  education  expressed 
by  Bacon  in  his  Advancement  of  Learning? 

1 6.  What  exposition  of  the  new  method  does  Bacon  give  in  the  Novum 
Organum  f 

17.  To  what  extent  was  the  inductive  method  used  by  Bacon's  contem- 
poraries in  their  investigations  ? 

18.  To  what  extent  does  the  development  of  any  one  or  all  of  the 
natural  sciences  during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  throw  light 
upon  the  educational  development  ? 

19.  What  were  the  merits  and  defects  of  the  educational  work  of  Ratich  ? 

20.  In  what  respects  were  his  views,  as  expressed  in  his  writings,  novel 
and  reformatory  ? 

21.  In  what  respects  are  the  educational  activities  of  Comenius  represen- 
tative of  the  Renaissance,  the  Reformation,  and  the  seventeenth-century 
scientific  tendencies  in  thought  ? 

22.  What  new  principles  are  embodied  in  the  text-books  of  Comenius  ? 

23.  How  influential  were  these  new  text-books? 

24.  To  what  extent  does  Comenius  yet  hold  to  the  mediaeval  educa- 
tional ideas  of  the  nature  of  the  various  subjects  of  the  curriculum,  the 
necessity  of  scholastic  discipline,  etc.  ? 

25.  To  what  extent  does  Comenius  hold  views  concerning  education 
that  are  now  accepted  ? 

26.  Trace  the  development  of  the  realistic  education  in  the  real-schools 
of  Germany.     In  the  academies  of  England.     In  the  academies  of  the 
United  States. 

27.  Give  an  account  of  Francke's  educational  work  at  Halle. 

28.  Trace  the  development  of  the  realistic  or  scientific  spirit  in  the 
universities  of  any  country. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  DISCIPLINARY  CONCEPTION  OF  EDUCATION. 
JOHN   LOCKE 

FACTORS  CONTRIBUTING  TO  THE  FORMATION  OF 
THE  DISCIPLINARY  CONCEPTION.  —  With  the  Reforma- 
tion, Latin  ceased  to  be  the  language  of  religion  and  of  the 
clergy;  similarly,  during  the  later  seventeenth  century,  it 
ceased  to  be  the  exclusive  language  of  the  universities,  of 
the  schools,  and  of  learning;  even  before  this  time  it  had 
been  superseded  by  French  as  the  language  of  diplomacy 
and  of  the  courts.  When,  with  the  development  of  the  ver- 
nacular literatures,  it  ceased  to  be  the  language  of  culture 
and  of  the  humanities  as  well,  Latin  could  no  longer  domi- 
nate the  schools  upon  the  same  basis  and  for  the  same  reasons 
that  it  had  done  hitherto.  But  by  the  seventeenth  century  the 
linguistic  and  literary  curriculum  had  become  traditional,  with 
the  authority  of  the  learning  of  two  centuries  behind  it  and 
with  a  scholastic  procedure  which  in  details  of  method  and  of 
curriculum,  in  the  entire  technique  of  the  schoolroom,  had 
never  been  equaled  by  any  previous  system  of  educational 
practice.  In  fact,  unless  we  consider  as  a  distinct  type  the 
further  improvement  this  linguistic  and  literary  schooling 
received  through  two  centuries  of  additional  practice,  it  has 
had  no  equal  since.  Now  perfection  in  the  technique  of 
schoolroom  procedure,  in  details  of  subject-matter,  organiza- 
tion, and  method,  is  no  justification  for  a  system  of  educational 
practice ;  yet,  since  it  has  behind  it  to  give  it  stability,  both  the 
force  of  tradition  and  the  most  tenacious  of  any  professional 

505 


506  History  of  Education 

loyalty  and  conservatism,  it  is  the  strongest  influence  work- 
ing  for  such  a  system. 

Consequently,  since  this  narrow  humanistic  education  no 
longer  had  any  direct  connection  with  the  practical  demands 
of  the  times  and  no  longer  offered  the  sole  approach  to  a 
knowledge  of  human  achievement  and  thought,  a  new  theory 
must  be  found  to  justify  its  perpetuation.  This  new  theory 
was,  in  a  word,  that  the  important  thing  in  education  was  not 
the  thing  learned,  but  the  process  of  learning.  In  respect  to 
this  principle,  the  new  education  was  but  a  revival  of  the 
formalism  of  mediaeval  scholasticism.  To  the  elaboration  of 
this  disciplinary  conception  of  education  a  number  of  factors 
contributed.  These  general  social  changes  just  mentioned, 
which  brought  about  the  opportunity  and  need  for  this  new 
theory,  were  in  themselves  the  most  important  of  these  fac- 
tors. These  changes  not  only  occasioned  the  formation  of 
the  theory  of  the  old  and  the  dominant ;  they  also  introduced 
the  new  practice  of  the  realistic  education  which  now  began 
to  appropriate  the  argument  advanced,  at  an  earlier  age,  for 
the  broad  humanistic  education.  Realism  emphasized  even 
more  strongly  than  had  the  early  Renaissance  thought  with 
reference  to  the  old  scholasticism,  that  it  was  the  thing  learned, 
not  the  process  of  learning  that  was  important.  The  narrow 
humanistic  education  now  adopted,  in  addition  to  the  argu- 
ments held  as  peculiar  merits  of  its  own,  all  those  formerly 
used  for  the  scholastic  education. 

In  the  second  place,  the  disciplinary  education,  as  it  repre- 
sented the  continuation  of  the  narrow  humanistic  education, 
yet  retained  the  almost  undivided  support  of  those  who  viewed 
education  from  the  religious  standpoint.  As  is  evidenced  in 
the  attitude  of  the  Church  toward  most  of  the  leaders  of  the 
realistic  tendency,  notably  Descartes  and  Bacon,  that  move- 
ment was  looked  upon  as  irreligious  and  atheistic.  In  his 
personal  views  Comenius  was  rather  an  exception ;  though 
in  the  attacks  and  persecutions  which  he  suffered  from  his 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        507 

co-religionists,  on  account  of  his  supposed  heretical  tendencies, 
he  was  entirely  typical.  This  opposition  became  one  phase 
of  the  conflict  between  theology  and  science.  But  from  a  yet 
more  general  reason,  and  that  a  pedagogical  one,  the  religious 
view  supported  the  disciplinary  conception.  In  fact,  since 
it  looked  upon  education  as  one  process  of  eradicating  the 
essentially  evil  character  of  human  nature,  the  religious  view 
of  education  on  its  pedagogical  side  was  the  disciplinary  one. 
On  the  moral  side,  then,  religious  thought  furnished  the 
theory  of  the  disciplinary  education. 

On  the  psychological  side,  so  far  as  that  entered  into  the 
educational  thought  of  the  times,  the  disciplinary  conception 
received  the  support  of  the  current  traditional  psychology. 
This  was  the  old  Aristotelian  faculty  psychology,  with  its 
mediaeval  implications,  which  demanded  a  training  of  the 
various  faculties  of  the  mind  by  appropriate  disciplines  for- 
mulated into  schoolroom  procedures.  No  subject  afforded 
better  facilities  for  this  than  the  formal  side  of  language  study, 
unless  it  was  the  mathematical  branches.  To  these,  conse- 
quently, greater  importance  was  now  attached  than  formerly. 
Even  the  new  psychology  of  Bacon  and  Locke,  so  far  as 
their  theory  of  knowledge  formulated  a  psychology,  contrib- 
uted to  the  prevailing  disciplinary  view.  At  least  Locke 
made  it  so  contribute  as  will  be  seen  subsequently.  But  it 
must  ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  Locke's  educational  theories 
are  not  always  consistent  with  his  psychological  theories. 
While  the  doctrine  of  innate  ideas  was  rejected  by  these  men 
in  favor  of  experience,  training  in  sense  perception  did  not 
supersede  nor  make  unnecessary  the  training  of  the  higher 
faculties.  In  either  case,  so  far  as  the  popular  view  went, 
the  training  was  to  be  a  "  discipline." 

MEANING    OF    EDUCATION    AS    A   DISCIPLINE.  —  As 

previously  stated,  the  essence  of  the  disciplinary  conception 
of  education  can  be  given  in  a  few  words ;  namely,  that  it  is 


508  History  of  Education 

the  process  of  learning  rather  than  the  thing  learned  that  is 
the  important  and  determining  thing  in  education.  John 
Locke,  who  gives  probably  the  best  presentation  of  this  con- 
ception, sums  up  his  views  in  one  place  as  follows :  — 

"  The  great  work  of  a  governor  is  to  fashion  the  carriage 
and  to  form  the  mind,  to  settle  in  his  pupil  good  habits  and 
the  principles  of  virtue  and  wisdom,  to  give  him  little  by 
little  a  view  of  mankind  and  work  him  into  a  love  and  imita- 
tion of  what  is  excellent  and  praiseworthy ;  and  in  the  prose- 
cution of  it  to  give  him  vigor,  activity,  and  industry.  The 
studies  which  he  sets  him  upon  are  but,  as  it  were,  the  exer- 
cise of  his  faculties  and  employment  of  his  time ;  to  keep 
him  from  sauntering  and  idleness ;  to  teach  him  application 
and  accustom  him  to  take  pains  and  to  give  him  some  little 
taste  of  what  his  own  industry  must  perfect." l 

As  indicated  by  the  analysis  of  the  elements  that  first  pro- 
duced this  view,  the  disciplinary  conception  takes  a  great 
variety  of  forms.  But  substantially  they  unite  on  the  one 
point,  namely,  that  a  particular  activity  or  experience,  espe- 
cially of  an  intellectual  character,  if  well  selected,  produces 
a  power  or  ability  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  expenditure  of 
energy  therein ;  a  power  that  will  be  serviceable  in  most  dis- 
similar experiences  or  activities,  that  will  be  available  in 
every  situation,  that  will  be  applicable  to  the  solution  of 
problems  presented  by  any  subject,  however  remote  in  kind 
from  the  one  furnishing  the  occasion  for  the  original  disciplin- 
ary experience.  More  specifically  the  theory  posited  that  one 
or  two  subjects,  thoroughly  taught  and  mastered,  were  of  much 
greater  educational  value  than  five  or  six  subjects  demanding 
the  same  amount  of  time  and  energy.  The  disciplinarians 
believed  that  those  subjects  which,  through  the  generality  of 
their  principles,  such  as  mathematics  and  logic,  or  through 
the  formal  nature  of  their  content  and  arrangement,  such  as 
the  classical  languages,  furnished  a  formal  training  for  tN? 

*  Thoughts  on  Education^  Par.  94,  Quick  edition,  pp.  75-76- 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        509 

various  "  faculties  "  of  the  mind,  were  of  supreme  importance 
educationally.  This  value  belonged  to  such  subjects  irrespeo 
tive  of  their  relation  to  life  or  of  their  final  mastery  or  use 
by  the  pupil.  It  was  further  implied,  so  far  as  the  period  of 
complete  dominance  of  this  theory  was  concerned,  that  these 
subjects  were  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  development  of  the 
memory  and  the  reason,  and  that  these  "  powers  of  the  mind  " 
were  preeminently  the  ones  demanded  for  success  in  any 
walk  of  life.  The  special  demands  which  the  various  callings 
or  needs  of  life  make  upon  education  were  to  receive  no 
special  consideration  ;  for  all  were  to  be  met  by  the  simple 
turning  of  the  ability  generated  by  the  formal  training  of  the 
school  into  the  desired  channel.  Nor  were  the  special  apti- 
tudes or  inaptitudes  of  the  pupils  given  any  consideration; 
for  since  these  studies  with  their  appropriate  discipline  fur- 
nished the  best  possible  preparation  for  every  obligation  that 
life  made  upon  education,  those  pupils  that  were  unable  to 
meet  the  demands  of  such  a  training  were  ipso  facto  incapable 
of  fulfilling  any  of  these  higher  offices  or  functions  in  life  or 
of  meeting  the  requirements  of  any  of  its  greater  opportu- 
nities. 

The  nature  as  well  as  the  force  of  this  conception  of  edu- 
cation is  best  seen  by  placing  it  in  opposition  to  an  equally 
one-sided  view  of  education,  but  one  that,  on  the  contrary, 
places  the  whole  emphasis  on  the  thing  learned  rather  than 
upon  the  process  of  learning.  A  writer,  Fouillee,1  much  more 
modern  than  those  who  stand  for  this  conception  in  the  ear- 
lier period  of  its  ascendency,  in  his  argument  for  the  disci- 
plinary education  of  the  classics  as  opposed  to  the  content  or 
practical  education  of  the  modern  sciences,  contrasts  these 
views  as  follows  :  — 

"  Huxley  proposes  to  make  the  natural  and  physical  sci- 
ences the  basis  of  education.  Spencer,  in  his  turn,  by  a  kind 

1  Education  from  the  National  Standpoint,  pp.  36,  37. 


510  History  of  Education 

of  idolatry  of  science  which  is  widespread  in  these  days, 
makes  of  positive  science  almost  exclusively  the  subject  foi 
youth,  under  the  pretext  that,  in  this  life,  geometry  is  neces- 
sary for  the  construction  of  bridges  and  railways,  and  that  in 
every  definite  trade,  even  in  poetry,  we  must  have  knowledge. 
How  conclusive  is  poetry  as  an  instance!  Is  a  Virgil  or  a 
Racine  made  by  learning  rules  of  versification  ?  The  scien- 
tific man  is  not  made  by  teaching  him  science,  for  true  science, 
like  poetry,  is  invention.  We  can  learn  to  build  a  railway  by 
rule  of  thumb,  but  those  who  invented  railways  did  so  only 
by  the  force  of  the  intellectual  power  they  had  acquired,  and 
not  by  the  force  of  the  mere  knowledge  they  had  received ;  it 
is  therefore  intellectual  force  that  we  must  aim  at  develop- 
ing. And  then  returns  the  question :  Is  the  best  means  of 
strengthening  and  developing  the  intellect  of  our  youth,  to 
load  the  memory  with  the  results  of  modern  science,  or  is  it 
to  teach  them  to  reason,  to  imagine,  to  combine,  to  divine,  to 
know  beforehand  what  ought  to  be  true  from  an  innate  sense 
of  order  and  harmony,  of  the  simple  and  the  fruitful,  —  a 
sense  near  akin  to  that  of  the  beautiful  ?  And  besides,  are 
youths  educated  to  be  engineers  or  poets  ?  Education  is  not 
an  apprenticeship  to  a  trade,  it  is  the  culture  of  moral  and 
intellectual  forces  in  the  individual  and  in  the  race." 

On  the  other  hand,  Huxley  answers  this  argument  by 
showing  in  somewhat  satirical  language  that  the  sciences 
could  be  so  arranged  and  so  taught  as  to  give  a  disciplinary 
training  similar  to  that  given  in  his  times  in  the  public 
schools.  Then  he  says:  — 

"  It  is  wonderful  how  close  a  parallel  to  classical  training 
could  be  made  out  of  that  palaeontology  to  which  I  refer. 
In  the  first  place  I  could  get  up  an  osteological  primer  so 
arid,  so  pedantic  in  its  terminology,  so  altogether  distasteful 
to  the  youthful  mind,  as  to  beat  the  recent  famous  production 
of  the  headmasters  out  of  the  field  in  all  these  excellencies. 
Next,  I  could  exercise  my  boys  upon  easy  fossils,  and  bring 
out  all  their  powers  of  memory  and  all  their  ingenuity  in  the 
application  of  my  osteo-grammatical  rules  to  the  interpreta- 
tion, or  construing,  of  those  fragments.  To  those  who  had 
reached  the  higher  classes,  I  might  supply  odd  bones  to  be 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        511 

built  up  into  animals,  giving  great  honor  and  reward  to  him 
who  succeeded  in  fabricating  monsters  most  entirely  in  accord- 
ance with  the  rules.  That  would  answer  to  verse  making  and 
essay  writing  in  the  dead  language.  To  be  sure,  if  a  great 
comparative  anatomist  were  to  look  at  these  fabrications  he 
might  shake  his  head,  or  laugh.  But  what  then  ?  Would 
such  a  catastrophe  destroy  the  parallel  ?  What,  think  you, 
would  Cicero,  or  Horace,  say  to  the  production  of  the  best 
sixth  form  going  ?  And  would  not  Terence  stop  his  ears  and 
run  out  if  he  could  be  present  at  an  English  performance  of 
his  own  plays  ?  Would  Hamlet,  in  the  mouths  of  a  set  of 
French  actors,  who  should  insist  on  pronouncing  English 
after  the  fashion  of  their  own  tongue,  be  more  hideously 
ridiculous  ? " 


So  persistent  is  this  narrow  disciplinary  view  that  even 
when  the  old  rational  psychology,  based  upon  introspective 
analysis,  begins  to  give  way  or  to  be  supplemented  by  a  con- 
ception of  the  mind  based  upon  a  study  of  its  development, 
education  is  yet  viewed  as  a  process  of  developing  the 
"powers"  or  "faculties"  of  the  mind  through  appropriate 
discipline.  This  is  seen  in  the  case  of  Pestalozzi,  who  first 
represents  this  view  in  practical  educational  work  (p.  614). 
A  few  sentences  on  the  appropriate  subject-matter  of  educa- 
tion from  a  recent  writer,  Tarver,  who  discusses  the  entire 
question  of  English  education  from  this  point  of  view,  are 
illustrative.  "  My  claim  for  Latin,  as  an  Englishman  and  a 
foster  parent  [teacher],  is  simply  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  devise  for  English  boys  a  better  teaching  instrument.  .  .  . 
The  acquisition  of  a  language  is  educationally  of  no  impor- 
tance ;  what  is  important  is  the  process  of  acquiring  it.  ... 
The  one  great  merit  of  Latin  as  a  teaching  instrument  is  its 
tremendous  difficulty." 

This  is  not  only  the  view  of  the  schoolmaster,  but  it  has 
been  held  generally  by  all  educated  people.  Professor  Home 
quotes  from  Sir  William  Hamilton  a  sentence  which  is  typical 
of  the  somewhat  milder  view  of  the  public.  "The  great 


512  History  of  Education 

problem  in  education,"  said  Hamilton,  "  is  how  to  induce  the 
pupil  to  go  through  with  a  course  of  exertion,  in  its  results  good 
and  even  agreeable,  but  immediately  and  in  itself  irksome." 

While  this  conception  of  education  still  prevails  very 
generally  and  is  apt  to  continue,  yet  we  are  now  chiefly  con- 
cerned in  its  historical  presentation,  especially  by  the  great 
English  philosopher. 

JOHN  LOCKE  AS  A  REPRESENTATIVE  OF  THE  DIS- 
CIPLINARY EDUCATION.—  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  sup- 
pose, from  the  heading  of  this  chapter,  that  the  educational 
ideas  of  John  Locke  (1632-1704)  can  be  completely  summed 
up  under  this  conception.  Locke  held  the  idea  that  educa- 
tion was  a  discipline,  and  his  view  strongly  reenforced  the 
prevalent  one.  But  the  "  discipline  "  of  the  philosopher  was 
a  much  broader  one  than  the  discipline  of  the  schoolmasters. 
Locke's  one  great  passion  in  life,  the  thought  emphasized  in 
his  philosophical  writings  as  the  aim  of  intellectual  endeavor, 
was  the  love  of  truth.  The  guide  to  the  attainment  of  truth 
and  to  every  activity  in  life  was  reason  ;  but  the  mind  was 
capable  of  attaining  to  truth  and  of  formulating  it  only  when 
educated  to  this  end.  This  education  consisted  in  a  rigid 
discipline.  In  his  Essay  concerning  Human  Understanding 
Locke  formulated  the  Baconian  philosophy  or  more  especially 
the  theory  of  knowledge,  that  of  empiricism,  that  has  re- 
mained the  dominant  philosophy  of  the  English  thought- 
world  to  the  present  time ;  this  theory  was  that  all  knowledge 
comes  from  the  perception  of  the  senses  and  the  "percep- 
tion of  the  intellect,"  that  is,  from  experience.  The  idea 
that  all  knowledge  comes  primarily  through  the  senses  and 
is  built  up  according  to  the  inductive  process,  as  formulated 
by  Bacon,  was  elaborated  by  Locke  rather  into  a  test  for  dis- 
tinguishing truth  from  falsity  than  into  a  theory  explaining 
the  origin  of  all  knowledge.  With  his  followers  of  the 
eighteenth  century  it  became  both. 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        513 

The  rational  psychology,  or  explanation  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  mind  works,  becomes  probably  incidentally  with 
Locke,  certainly  directly  with  his  followers,  an  explanation 
of  how  the  mind  develops  as  well.  Though  it  is  impossible 
to  enter  into  details  here,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
Locke's  philosophical  and  psychological  views  do  not  always 
accord  with  his  views  on  education.  The  one  fundamental 
thing  that  makes  Locke  a  representative  of  the  disciplinary 
education  throughout  is  his  idea  of  the  human  mind  as  a 
mere  blank  to  begin  with  that  has  its  virtues  and  powers 
worked  into  it  from  the  outside  through  its  formation  of 
habits.  In  respect  to  many  other  important  points,  as  will 
be  seen,  Locke  agrees  with  the  naturalists  who,  opposing 
Locke  on  this  point,  held  that  all  such  powers  came  as  the 
development  of  powers  from  within,  according  to  a  wholly 
natural  process.  Development,  according  to  Locke,  came 
only  through  the  formation  of  habit  through  discipline. 

Our  main  interest,  however,  is  in  the  educational  theory 
of  Locke,  not  in  his  philosophy.  In  his  Essay  and  more 
especially  in  his  Conduct  of  the  Understanding,  he  shows  how 
this  type  of  mind  can  be  developed,  that  is,  through  such  a 
training  or  discipline  as  will  strengthen  all  its  powers.  This 
is  not  to  be  done  merely  by  study  and  reading,  but  more 
largely  by  reflection  and  meditation.  These  views  must  be 
taken  into  account  in  the  examination  of  his  Thoughts  con- 
cerning Education  (1693),  which  is  the  one  work  by  which 
his  educational  ideas  are  usually  judged.  It  is  entirely  one- 
sided to  formulate  Locke's  educational  ideas  from  this  one 
treatise,  the  more  so  since  it  contains  advice  written  to  a 
friend  concerning  the  education  of  his  own  sons  and  it  is 
specifically  stated  by  Locke  that  much  of  it  has  only  this 
special  application.  This  is  particularly  true  of  that  portion 
of  it  which  deals  with  the  intellectual  aspect  of  education 
which  is  more  broadly  treated  in  Locke's  other  works. 

As  the  most  important  and  influential  of  all  English  writers 

2L 


514  History  of  Education 

on  the  subject  of  education,  or,  at  least  as  ranking  with 
Ascham  and  Spencer,  the  main  thoughts  of  Locke's  treatise 
deserve  presentation  altogether  aside  from  the  connection 
they  may  have  with  any  general  tendency.  However,  it  is 
just  these  fundamental  conceptions,  as  distinguished  from  the 
many  valuable  suggestions  and  ideas  scattered  throughout 
the  treatise,  that  give  Locke  his  relation  to  the  disciplinarians. 
It  is  the  consideration  of  isolated  ideas  and  general  remarks 
that  leads  to  his  classification  with  the  realists,  or  humanists, 
or  naturalists,  as  is  done  by  so  many  students  of  the  subject. 

The  aspects  of  education  according  to  Locke  are  three : 
physical,  moral,  intellectual.  The  aims  are,  correspondingly, 
vigor  of  body,  virtue,  and  knowledge.  The  first  is  funda- 
mental as  a  basis.  This  being  provided  for,  the  aims  of 
education  are,  as  he  states  in  another  place,  virtue,  wisdom, 
breeding  and  learning  in  the  order  of  their  importance. 

Physical  Education.  — "  A  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body  is 
a  short  but  full  description  of  a  happy  state  in  this  world. 
He  that  has  these  two,  has  little  more  to  wish  for ;  and  he 
that  wants  either  of  them,  will  be  but  little  the  better  for 
anything  else."  These  are  the  opening  sentences  of  the 
Thoughts,  the  first  thirty  paragraphs  of  which  are  given  to  the 
discussion  of  physical  education  —  one  of  the  first  and  yet 
one  of  the  sanest  of  such  treatises.  The  principle  under- 
lying it  all,  the  scanty  and  loose  clothing,  the  hard  beds,  the 
open  air,  the  simple  even  rigid  diet,  is  that  of  the  hardening 
process, — rigid  discipline.  "Thus  I  have  done,"  he  says  in 
conclusion,  "with  what  concerns  the  Body  and  Health,  which 
reduces  itself  to  these  few  and  easy  observable  Rules :  Plenty 
of  Open  Air,  Exercise,  and  Sleep,  plain  Diet,  no  Wine  or 
Strong  Drink  and  very  little  or  no  Physick,  not  too  warm  and 
strait  Clothing,  especially  the  Head  and  Feet  kept  cold,  and 
the  Feet  often  used  to  cold  Water  and  exposed  to  Wet" 

Moral  Education.  —  One  of  the  most  striking  of  Locke's 
positions,  as  well  as  one  of  the  soundest  of  them,  is  the 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        515 

clear  distinction  he  ever  holds  in  mind  between  education 
and  instruction.  This  explains  the  divergence  between 
Locke's  views  and  those  of  the  educators  of  the  prevail- 
ing disciplinary  school.  With  the  latter,  education  came 
to  be  identified  with  instruction,  as  it  in  turn  became  a 
rigid  and  formal  discipline.  With  Locke  it  is  education 
as  a  whole  that  is  a  discipline.  With  instruction  as  merely 
the  method  of  intellectual  education,  —  a  method  less  rigid 
and  exact  than  with  the  prevailing  Schoolmen,  because  affect- 
ing only  one  aspect  of  education  and  that  of  secondary  im- 
portance,—  the  primary  object  of  education  is  the  formation 
of  character. 

"  'Tis  Virtue  then,  direct  Virtue,  which  is  the  hard  and 
valuable  part  to  be  aimed  at  in  Education,  and  not  a  forward 
Pertness,  or  any  little  Arts  of  Shifting.  All  other  Considera- 
tions and  Accomplishments  should  give  way  and  be  postponed 
to  this.  This  is  the  solid  and  substantial  Good  which  Tutors 
should  not  only  read,  lecture,  and  talk  of,  but  the  Labor  and 
Art  of  Education  should  furnish  the  Mind  with,  and  fasten 
there,  and  never  cease  till  the  young  man  had  a  true  Relish 
of  it,  and  placed  his  Strength,  his  Glory,  and  his  Pleasure  in 
it." 

But  it  is  rather  the  manner  in  which  this  great  end  is  to  be 
accomplished  that  indicates  again  how,  fundamentally,  Locke 
holds  throughout  to  the  disciplinary  conception  of  education. 

"  As  the  strength  of  the  Body,"  he  remarks  in  beginning 
his  discussion  of  moral  education,  "  lies  chiefly  in  being  able 
to  endure  Hardships,  so  also  does  that  of  the  Mind,  and  the 
great  Principle  and  Foundation  of  all  Virtue  and  Worth  is 
placed  in  this :  That  a  Man  is  able  to  deny  himself  his  own 
desires,  cross  his  own  inclinations  and  purely  follow  what  Rea- 
son directs  as  best,  tho'  the  appetite  lean  the  other  way.  .  .  . 
It  seems  plain  to  me  that  the  Principle  of  all  Virtue  and 
Excellency  lies  in  the  Power  of  denying  ourselves  the  Satis- 
faction of  our  own  Desires,  where  Reason  does  not  authorize 
them.  This  Power  is  to  be  got  and  improved  by  Custom. 


516  History  of  Education 

made  easy  and  familiar  by  an  early  Practice.  If,  therefore,  1 
might  be  heard,  I  would  advise  that  contrary  to  the  ordinary 
way,  children  should  be  used  to  submit  their  Desires  and  go 
without  their  Longings,  even  from  their  very  Cradles.  The 
first  thing  they  should  learn  to  know  should  be  that  they  were 
not  to  have  anything  because  it  pleased  them,  but  because  it 
was  thought  fit  for  them." 

So  here  again  education  at  basis  is  a  discipline.  Virtue  is 
to  be  obtained  by  the  formation  of  good  habits  through  a  long 
discipline  of  the  desires.  How  erroneous  it  is  to  class  Locke 
with  Rousseau  is  seen  in  this  most  fundamental  of  all  his  edu- 
cational principles.  It  is  true  that  the  process  is  to  be  made 
as  pleasurable  as  possible  for  the  child,  and  great  severity, 
especially  as  regards  corporal  punishment,  is  to  be  avoided ; 
but  the  secret  of  all  education  is  to  control  the  natural  desires 
and  instincts  by  thwarting  them  and  forming  the  habit  of  their 
control,  and  not  at  all  by  following  them  implicitly  as  with  the 
naturalists.  It  is  in  this  respect  that,  later,  Rousseau  says, 
"  Form  no  habits."  But,  on  the  contrary,  Locke  says,  "  It  is 
not  that  the  Performance  of  a  single  Act  is  in  itself  to  be 
deprecated  perhaps ;  but  the  Formation  of  Habit  is  all-im- 
portant." He  even  grants  that  it  possesses  greater  impor- 
tance in  education  than  reason.  "Habits,"  he  says,  "work 
more  constantly  and  with  greater  facility  than  Reason,  which, 
when  we  have  most  need  of  it,  is  seldom  fairly  consulted  and 
more  rarely  obeyed." 

This  education  through  moral  discipline  is  to  be  carried 
out  by  emphasizing  authority,  either  that  of  the  parent  or 
master,  the  latter  preferably  a  tutor.  However,  Locke  depre- 
cates the  severity  and  the  arbitrariness  with  which  such  au- 
thority was  customarily  exercised.  The  greater  part  of  the 
Thoughts  is  devoted  to  a  discussion  of  the  various  virtues,  — 
justice,  liberality,  fortitude,  truthfulness,  honesty,  industry, 
and  good  breeding  in  general ;  to  the  methods  of  developing 
these  things,  authority,  punishment,  rewards,  praise;  and  to 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education 

the  appropriate  time  of  each.  The  substance  of  all,  however, 
is  that  moral  education,  as  physical,  is  a  hardening  process, 
—  the  schooling  of  desires  to  the  control  of  reason  through 
habits  formed  by  constant  denial  of  natural  wants.  Let  one 
illustration  suffice :  — 

"  But  since  the  great  Foundation  of  Fear  in  Children  is 
Pain,  the  way  to  harden  and  fortify  Children  against  Fear 
and  Danger  is  to  accustom  them  to  suffer  Pain.  This  'tis  pos- 
sible will  be  thought,  by  kind  Parents,  a  very  unnatural  thing 
towards  their  Children ;  and  by  most,  unreasonable,  to  en- 
deavour to  reconcile  any  one  to  the  Sense  of  Pain,  by  bringing 
it  upon  him.  'Twill  be  said  :  '  It  may  perhaps  give  the  Child 
an  Aversion  for  him  that  makes  him  surfer;  but  can  never 
recommend  to  him  Suffering  itself.  This  is  a  strange  Method. 
You  will  not  have  Children  whipp'd  and  punish'd  for  their 
Faults,  but  you  would  have  them  tormented  for  doing  well, 
or  for  tormenting  sake.'  I  doubt  not  but  such  Objections  as 
these  will  be  made,  and  I  shall  be  thought  inconsistent  with 
myself,  or  fantastical,  in  proposing  it.  I  confess  it  is  a  thing 
to  be  managed  with  great  Discretion,  and  therefore  it  falls 
not  out  amiss,  that  it  will  not  be  receiv'd  or  relish'd,  but  by 
those  who  consider  well,  and  look  into  the  Reason  of  Things. 
I  would  not  have  Children  much  beaten  for  their  Faults,  be- 
cause I  would  not  have  them  think  bodily  Pain  the  greatest 
Punishment :  And  I  would  have  them,  when  they  do  well, 
be  sometimes  put  in  Pain,  for  the  same  Reason,  that  they 
might  be  accustom'd  to  bear  it,  without  looking  on  it  as 
the  greatest  Evil.  How  much  Education  may  reconcile  young 
People  to  Pain  and  Sufferance,  the  Examples  of  Sparta  do 
sufficiently  shew :  And  they  who  have  once  brought  them- 
selves not  to  think  bodily  Pain  the  greatest  of  Evils,  or  that 
which  they  ought  to  stand  most  in  fear  of,  have  made  no 
small  Advance  towards  Virtue.  But  I  am  not  so  foolish  to 
propose  the  Lacedemonian  Discipline  in  our  Age  or  Consti- 
tution. But  yet  I  do  say,  that  inuring  Children  gently  to 
suffer  some  Degrees  of  Pain  without  shrinking,  is  a  way  to 
gain  Firmness  to  their  Minds,  and  lay  a  Foundation  for 
Courage  and  Resolution  in  the  future  Part  of  their  Lives." 1 

1  Thottgkts,  par.  115;  Quick  edition,  pp.  98-100. 


5 1 8  History  of  Education 

INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  —  When  we  come  to  this  phase 
of  Locke's  ideas,  the  fundamental  principle  is  not  so  clearly 
revealed,  for  there  is  somewhat  of  a  conflict  between  the  views 
expressed  in  the  Thoughts  and  those  in  Locke's  other  writ- 
ings. But  here  again,  if  fundamental  ideas  alone  are  con- 
sidered, the  discrepancy  disappears.  This  portion  of  the 
Thoughts  is  devoted  for  the  most  part  to  a  consideration  of 
the  materials  of  study,  concerning  which  Locke  agrees  in 
most  points  with  the  sense-realists  and  the  encyclopedists 
Even  here,  however,  the  disciplinary  view  is  fundamental  as 
will  be  seen  in  this  conclusion  :  — 

"  Learning  must  be  had,  but  in  the  second  Place,  as  sub- 
servient only  to  greater  Qualities.  Seek  out  somebody  that 
may  know  how  discreetly  to  frame  his  Manners :  Place  him 
in  Hands  where  you  may,  as  much  as  possible,  secure  his 
Innocence,  cherish  and  nurse  up  the  good,  and  gently  correct 
and  weed  out  any  bad  Inclinations,  and  settle  in  him  good 
Habits.  This  is  the  main  Point,  and  this  being  provided  for, 
Learning  may  be  had  into  the  Bargain,  and  that,  as  I  think, 
at  a  very  easy  rate,  by  Methods  that  may  be  thought  on." 

It  is  when  we  turn  to  Locke's  philosophical  writings,  more 
especially  his  Conduct  of  the  Understanding,  that  his  concep- 
tion of  the  intellectual  aspect  of  education  is  clearly  revealed. 
Long  ago  this  work  was  termed  a  "treatise  on  the  moral 
discipline  of  the  intellect."  In  it  is  beslLseeji  his  conception 
of  education  as  an  intellectuaF  discipline,  which  is  of  far 

_   — •*• 

wider  scope  than  the  prevailing  discipline  of  formal  methods 
of  linguistic  studies.  Here  also,  in  stating  his  fundamental 
principle,  is  given  the  justification  for  his  encyclopedism  — 
together  with  its  great  difference  from  that  of  Comenius. 

"  The  business  of  education  is  not  to  make  the  young  per- 
fect in  any  one  of  the  sciences,  but  so  to  open  and  dispose 
their  minds  as  may  best  make  them  capable  of  any,  when  they 
shall  apply  themselves  to  it.  ...  It  is  therefore  to  give  them 
this  freedom  that  I  think  they  should  be  made  to  look  into 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        519 

all  sorts  of  knowledge  and  exercise  their  understanding  in  so 
wide  a  variety  or  stock  of  knowledge.  But  I  do  not  propose 
it  as  a  variety  and  stock  of  knowledge  but  a  variety  and 
freedom  of  thinking ;  as  an  increase  of  the  powers  and  activ- 
ities of  the  mind,  not  as  an  enlargement  of  its  possessions." 

The  entire  treatise  is  devoted  to  a  reiteration  of  the  idea 
that  intellectual  education  is  a  formation  of  habit  of  thought 
through  exercise  and  discipline. 

"  The  faculties  of  our  souls  are  improved  and  made  useful 
to  us  just  after  the  same  manner  as  our  bodies  are.  Would 
you  have  a  man  write  or  paint,  dance  or  fence  well,  or  per- 
form any  other  manual  operation  dexterously  and  with  ease, 
let  him  have  ever  so  much  vigor  and  activity,  suppleness  and 
address  naturally,  yet  nobody  expects  this  from  him  unless  he 
has  been  used  to  it,  and  has  employed  time  and  pains  in 
fashioning  and  forming  his  hand  or  outward  parts  to  these 
motions.  Just  so  it  is  in  the  mind ;  would  you  have  a  man 
reason  well,  you  must  use  him  to  it  betimes,  exercise  his  mind 
in  observing  the  connection  of  ideas  and  following  them  in 
train." 

Respecting  the  choice  of  subject-matter  appropriate  to  this 
end,  he  continues  in  the  manner  characteristic  of  this  entire 
school  of  educational  thought :  — 

"  Nothing  does  this  better  than  mathematics,  which  there- 
fore I  think  should  be  taught  all  those  who  have  the  time 
and  opportunity,  not  sq  much  to  make  them  mathematicians  y 
as  to  make  them  reasonable  creatures  ;  for  though  we  call  our- 
selves so,  because  we  are  born  to  it  if  we  please,  yet  we  may 
truly  say  nature  gives  us  but  the  seeds  of  it.  We  are  born  to 
be,  if  we  please,  rational  creatures,  but  it  is  use  and  exercise 
that  makes  us  so,  and  we  are  indeed  so  no  further  than 
industry  and  application  has  carried  us.  ...  I  have  men- 
tioned mathematics  as  a  way  to  settle  in  the  mind  a  habit  of 
reasoning  closely  and  in  train ;  not  that  I  think  it  necessary 
that  all  men  should  be  deep  mathematicians,  but  that  having 
got  the  way  of  reasoning,  which  that  study  necessarily  brings 
the  mind  to,  they  might  be  able  to  transfer  it  to  other  parts 
of  knowledge  as  they  shall  have  occasion." 


520  History  of  Education 

Locke  as  a  Representative  of  Realism.  —  It  must  be  admitted 
that  this  classification  of  Locke  is  not  the  usual  educational 
one ;  rather  is  he  most  frequently  grouped  with  Montaigne, 
Bacon  and  Comenius,  or  with  Rousseau.  While  Locke  had 
much  in  common  with  each  of  these  men,  it  is  here  main- 
tained that  this  similarity  was  in  regard  to  views  that  were 
incidental  or  subordinate  to  the  fundamental  conception 
explained  above.  With  Montaigne  the  points  of  agreement 
are  very  numerous.  Both  objected  to  the  greater  part  of  the 
existing  education  ;  both  held  that  the  formation  of  character 
for  life  in  the  existing  society  —  that  is,  virtue  as  opposed  to 
mere  intellectual  training  —  was  the  real  aim  of  education ; 
both  preferred  the  education  by  a  tutor  to  that  of  the  school ; 
both  recommended  travel  as  an  important  constituent 
means ;  both  emphasized  the  importance  of  physical  educa- 
tion ;  both  objected  to  learning  "  by  heart " ;  both  held  that 
Latin  was  to  form  a  part  of  the  curriculum  because  a  knowl- 
edge of  this  language  was  yet  a  part  of  the  equipment  of  a 
gentleman  of  the  world ;  both  held  that  education  should  be 
practical  and  fit  for  the  real  life  of  the  time.  And  yet  there 
was  a  wide  divergence  in  their  conception  of  what  constituted 
virtue  and  the  demands  of  real  life  and  a  yet  wider  diver- 
gence, amounting  to  a  total  disagreement,  respecting  the  funda- 
mental character  of  the  process  by  which  these  aims  were 
to  be  reached.  And  this  divergence,  whether  in  regard  to 
the  physical,  the  moral,  or  the  intellectual  aspect  of  education, 
is  that  which  constitutes  Locke  a  "  disciplinarian  "  in  his  con- 
ception of  education.  The  point  wherein  Locke  most  closely 
approximates  the  views  of  Montaigne  is  the  one  place  where 
he  clings  to  authority  and  makes  education  a  discipline 
dependent  upon  that  authority.  As  Professor  Davidson  re- 
marks, "In  education  he  replaces  the  authority  of  God  by 
the  authority  of  society,  the  clergy  by  the  landed  gentry." 

There  is  an  agreement  with  the  sense-realists  on  both  the 
content  and  the  method  side.  But  as  previously  explained,  the 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        521 

encyclopedism  of  Locke  appears  only  where  he  is  con 
sidering  the  needs  of  his  one  particular  pupil,  as  a  pros- 
pective member  of  the  English  gentry,  and  even  there  this 
wide  range  of  subjects  was  to  be  used  largely  as  a  dis 
cipline.  There  is  hardly  any  mention  of  the  natural  sci- 
ences, as  held  fundamental  by  Bacon  and  as  introduced  by 
Comenius  into  the  curriculum.  The  general  view  of  Locke 
concerning  the  subjects  of  study  would  place  him  as  the 
best  representative  of  the  disciplinary  conception,  in  that 
it  was  the  process  of  learning  and  not  the  thing  learned 
that  was  of  importance.  With  regard  to  this  process  of 
learning,  or  method,  there  was  much  more  in  common  with 
Bacon  and  Comenius ;  but  with  these  latter  it  was  decidedly 
the  thing  learned  rather  than  the  process  that  determined  their 
conception  of  education.  In  his  realistic  or  empirical  philoso- 
phy Locke  but  formulated  on  the  subjective  side  what  Bacon 
had  previously  formulated  objectively.  Knowledge  in  its 
elementary  form  comes  altogether  through  the  senses  and 
must  so  be  acquired,  though  the  processes  of  observation 
must  quickly  be  supplemented  by  higher  ones.  "  Children 
may  be  taught  anything  which  falls  under  senses,  especially 
their  sight,  as  far  as  their  memories  only  are  exercised."  The 
development  from  such  a  basis  and  the  simplest  forms  of 
knowledge  to  the  most  complex  forms  of  knowledge  is  by 
observance  of  the  inductive  method.  Much  of  the  Conduct 
of  the  Understanding  is  devoted  to  an  elaboration  of  this 
point.  "  In  learning  anything,  as  little  should  be  proposed 
to  the  mind  at  once  as  is  possible;  and  that  being  under- 
stood and  fully  mastered,  to  proceed  to  the  next  adjoining 
part  yet  unknown."  J\ 

And  again  in  "Connection  with  the  same  subject  (intellec- 
tual "  despondency  ")  he  says :  — 

"Things  that  in  a  remote  and  confused  view  seem  very 
obscure  must  be  approached  by  gentle  and  regular  steps ; 
and  what  is  most  visible,  easy,  and  obvious  in  them,  first 


522  History  of  Education 

considered.  Reduce  them  into  their  distinct  parts;  and 
then  in  their  due  order  bring  all  that  should  be  known  con- 
cerning every  one  of  these  parts  into  plain  and  simple  ques- 
tions ;  and  then  what  was  thought  obscure,  perplexed,  and 
too  hard  for  our  weak  parts,  will  lay  itself  open  to  the  under- 
standing in  a  fair  view,  and  let  the  mind  into  that  which 
before  it  was  awed  with,  and  kept  at  a  distance  from  a? 
wholly  mysterious. 

The  surest  way  for  a  learner  in  this,  as  in  all  other  cases, 
is  not  to  advance  by  jumps  and  large  strides ;  let  that  which 
he  sets  himself  to  learn  next  be  indeed  the  next ;  i.e.  as  nearly 
conjoined  with  what  he  knows  already  as  is  possible ;  let  it 
be  distinct  but  not  remote  from  it ;  let  it  be  new,  and  what 
he  did  not  know  before,  that  the  understanding  may  advance ; 
but  let  it  be  as  little  at  once  as  may  be,  that  its  advances  may 
be  clear  and  sure.  All  the  ground  that  it  gets  this  way  it 
will  hold.  This  distinct,  gradual  growth  in  knowledge  is 
firm  and  sure ;  it  carries  its  own  light  with  it  in  every  step  of 
its  progression  in  an  easy  and  orderly  train ;  than  which  there 
is  nothing  of  more  use  to  the  understanding.  And  though 
this  perhaps  may  seem  a  very  slow  and  lingering  way  to 
knowledge,  yet  I  dare  confidently  affirm  that  whoever  will 
try  it  in  himself  or  any  one  he  will  teach,  shall  find  the 
advances  greater  in  this  method  than  they  would  in  the 
same  space  of  time  have  been  in  any  other  he  could  have 
taken." 


Locke  as  a  Representative  of  the  Naturalistic  Tendency.  — • 
In  a  sense,  Locke  is  the  founder  of  the  naturalistic  movement 
in  education,  for  in  many  respects,  Rousseau  freely  acknowl- 
edges indebtedness  to  him.  Yet,  as  has  been  previously 
noticed,  there  was  fundamental  disagreement  on  the  most 
vital  point,  in  that  Locke  held  that  the  very  purpose  of 
education  was  to  thwart  and  thus,  through  discipline,  to 
bring  under  the  control  of  reason  and  authority  the  natural 
tendencies  of  the  child.  The  sensationalism  of  Locke  be- 
came the  philosophical  basis  of  the  naturalism  of  Rousseau 
so  far  as  it  sought  one  in  the  nature  of  knowledge.  Both 
believed  that  education  must  be  based  upon  a  sound  physique, 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        523 

jared  for  as  a  distinct  plan  of  education ;  both  believed  that 
education  in  its  earlier  stages  was  a  training  in  sense  percep- 
tion ;  both  held  that  the  process  of  education  should  be  made 
pleasurable  and  the  harshness  and  cruelty  of  accepted  prac- 
tices done  away  with  ;  both  believed  in  making  learning  easy, 
—  Locke  so  far  as  consistent  with  his  fundamental  tenets,  — 
and  that  the  natural  curiosity  of  the  child  should  be  taken 
advantage  of;  both  held  that  books  were  not  the  most  im- 
portant source  of  learning;  both  believed  that  children  should 
be  educated  morally  by  allowing  them  to  suffer  the  natural 
consequences  of  their  own  acts,  though  with  Rousseau  this 
was  to  be  the  fundamental  principle,  while  Locke  made  much 
use  of  authority.  Locke,  as  did  Rousseau,  ostensibly  sup- 
planted authority  by  reason;  and  yet  Locke  found  much 
that  was  reasonable  in  authority.  In  respect  to  the  funda- 
mental principle  underlying  the  physical,  the  moral,  and  the 
intellectual  aspects  of  education,  Rousseau,  despite  their 
special  points  of  similarity,  entered  a  protest  against  the  view 
held  by  Locke. 

THE    DISCIPLINARY    EDUCATION   IN    THE   SCHOOLS. 

In  England.  —  The  trenchant  criticism  which  Locke  formu- 
lated against  the  type  of  education  prevailing  in  the  English 
public  schools  should  not  blind  one  to  the  fact  that  funda- 
mentally their  views  of  education  were  the  same.  What 
Locke  objected  to  was  that  the  schools  confined  their  disci- 
pline to  exclusively  intellectual  training;  and  that  in  this 
training  they  emphasized  activities  of  the  mind  that  were  not 
the  most  important;  and  that  the  means  they  used,  especially 
the  writing  of  Latin  themes  and  verse,  were  too  restricted 
and  were  calculated  to  develop  certain  abilities  that  were  of 
little  value.  The  subsequent  emphasis  which  these  schools 
laid  upon  the  importance  of  physical  and  moral  discipline, 
through  games  and  sports  and  out-of-door  life  in  general, 
with  all  the  training  which  came  from  the  struggle  for  leader 


524  History  of  Education 

ship  among  boys  thrown  almost  entirely  upon  their  own 
responsibility  for  government  and  the  regulation  of  their 
relations  among  themselves,  was  due  to  a  considerable  extent 
to  the  influence  of  Locke's  Thoughts. 

The  work  of  these  public  schools  is  typical  of  all  educa- 
tional work  in  England  during  all  of  the  eighteenth  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  seventeenth  and  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
turies. The  very  extensive  use  of  corporal  punishment  for 
the  slightest  offenses  or  deficiencies ;  the  important  influence 
exerted  by  the  fagging  system,  in  which  the  younger  boys 
served  as  the  personal  attendants  and  servants  of  the  older 
boys,  performing  all  menial  services  such  as  keeping  their 
rooms,  preparing  their  breakfasts,  building  fires,  running 
errands,  etc.;  the  custom  of  governing  the  school  and  inflict- 
ing punishment  in  all  save  the  most  serious  offenses  by  these 
same  "  sixth  form  "  boys ;  all  these  indicate  how  completely, 
in  respect  to  "virtue  and  breeding,"  education  in  the  dominant 
English  view  had  become  and  continued  to  be  a  discipline. 

On  the  intellectual  side  the  situation  was  even  more  striking, 
since  nowhere  else  can  one  find  dominant  for  so  long  a 
period,  an  elementary  and  secondary  education  with  such  a 
paucity  of  intellectual  content.  Beyond  the  mastery  of  the 
rudiments  of  grammar,  which  were  ordinarily  required  for 
entrance,  the  entire  work  of  from  six  to  nine  years  was 
devoted  to  Latin  and  Greek  prose  composition  and  to  the 
writing  of  verse,  especially  in  the  Latin.  This  was  presumed 
to  develop  an  appreciation  for  the  classical  literature,  which 
constituted  the  sole  content  of  their  curriculum.  This  regime 
was  hardly  questioned  until  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  for  more  than  half  a  century  additional  the  merits 
and  demerits  of  Latin  versification  were  discussed  as  though 
the  whole  question  of  educational  values  and  of  the  subjects 
of  study  were  compassed  within  these  narrow  limits.  A  brief 
description  of  the  work  of  one  of  these  schools  —  Westminster 
—  in  the  seventeenth  century  is  typical. 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        525 

"  About  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  5  in  the  morning  we 
were  called  up  by  one  of  the  Monitors  of  the  chamber ;  and 
after  Latin  prayers  we  went  into  the  cloysters  to  wash,  and 
thence  in  order,  two  by  two,  to  the  schoole,  where  we  were  to 
be  by  6  of  the  clock  at  furthest.  Between  6  and  8  we 
repeated  our  grammar  parts  (out  of  Lilie  for  Latin,  out  of 
Cambden  for  the  Greek);  14  or  15  being  selected  and  called 
out  to  stand  in  a  semicircle  before  the  Mr.  and  other  scholars, 
and  there  repeate  4  or  5  leaves  in  either,  the  Mr.  appointing 
who  should  begin  and  who  should  go  on  with  such  and  such 
rules.  After  this  we  had  two  exercises  that  varied  every 
other  morning.  The  first  morning  we  made  verses  extem- 
pore Latin  and  Greek,  upon  two  or  three  several  themes ;  and 
they  that  made  the  best  (two  or  three  of  them)  had  some 
money  given  them  by  the  school-mr.,  for  the  most  part.  The 
second  morning,  one  of  the  form  was  called  out  to  expound 
some  part  of  a  Latin  or  Greek  author  (Cicero,  Livie,  Isoc- 
rates,  Homer,  Apollinarius,  Xenophon,  &c.),  and  they  of  the 
two  next  forms  were  called  to  give  an  account  of  it  some  other 
part  of  the  day  ;  or  else  they  were  all  of  them  (or  such  as 
were  picked  out,  of  whom  the  Mr.  made  choice  by  the  fear  or 
confidence  discovered  in  their  looks)  to  repeate  and  pronounce 
distinctly  without  book  some  piece  of  an  author  that  had  been 
learned  the  day  before.  From  8  to  9  we  had  time  for  Beaver, 
and  recollection  of  ourselves,  and  preparation  for  future 
exercises.  Betwixt  9  and  n,  those  exercises  were  read  which 
had  been  enjoined  us  over  night  (one  day  in  prose,  the  next 
day  in  verse),  which  were  selected  by  the  Mr. ;  some  to  be 
examined  and  punished,  others  to  be  commended  and  proposed 
for  imitation.  Which  being  done,  we  had  the  practice  of 
Dictamina  ;  one  of  the  $th  form  being  called  out  to  translate 
some  sentences  out  of  an  unexpected  author  (extempore}  into 
good  Latin ;  and  then  one  of  the  6th  or  7th  form  to  translate 
the  same  (extempore  also)  into  good  Greek.  Then  the  Mr. 
himself  expounded  some  part  of  a  Latin  or  Greek  author  (one 
day  in  prose,  another  in  verse)  wherein  we  were  to  be  practised 
in  the  afternoon.  At  dinner  and  supper  times  we  read  some 
portion  of  the  Latin  Bible  in  a  manuscript  (to  facilitate  the 
reading  of  such  hands) :  and,  the  Prebendaries  then  having 
their  table  commonly  in  the  Hall,  some  of  them  had  often- 
times good  remembrances  sent  unto  them  from  thence,  and 


526  History  of  Education 

withal  a  theme  to  make  or  speak  some  extempore  verses  upon 
Betwixt  i  and  3,  that  lesson  which  out  of  some  author 
appointed  for  that  day  had  been  by  the  Mr.  expounded  unto 
them  (out  of  Cicero,  Virgil,  Homer,  Euripides,  Isocrates, 
Livie,  Sallust,  &c.)  was  to  be  exactly  gone  through  by  con- 
struing and  other  grammatical  ways,  examining  all  the 
Rhetorical  figures,  and  translating  it  out  of  verse  into  prose, 
or  out  of  prose  into  verse,  out  of  Greek  into  Latin,  or  out  of 
Latin  into  Greek.  Then  they  were  enjoined  to  commit  that 
to  memory  against  the  next  morning.  Betwixt  3  and  4  we 
had  a  little  respite  :  the  Mr.  walking  out  and  they  (in  beaver- 
times)  going  in  order  to  the  Hall,  and  then  fitting  themselves 
for  their  next  task.  Between  4  and  5  they  repeated  a  leaf  or 
two  of  some  book  of  Rhetorical  figures,  or  choice  Proverbs 
and  Sentences,  collected  by  the  Mr.  for  that  use.  After,  they 
were  practised  in  translating  some  Dictamina  out  of  Latin  or 
Greek,  or  sometimes  turning  Latin  or  Greek  verses  into 
English  verse.  Then  a  theme  was  given  them,  whereupon  to 
make  prose  of  verses,  Latin  and  Greek,  against  the  next 
morning.  After  supper  (in  summer-time)  they  were  three  or 
four  times  in  a  week  called  to  the  Mr.'s  chamber  (especially 
they  of  the  /th  form),  and  there  instructed  out  of  Hunter's 
Cosmographie,  and  practised  to  describe  and  find  out  cities 
and  countries  in  the  maps.  Upon  Sundays  before  morning 
prayers  in  summer  they  came  commonly  into  the  school  (such 
as  were  King's  scholars),  and  there  construed  some  part  of 
the  gospel  in  Greek,  or  repeated  part  of  the  Greek  catechism. 
In  the  afternoon  they  made  verses  upon  the  preacher's  ser- 
mon, or  epistle  and  gospel.  The  best  scholars  in  the  7th  form 
were  appointed  as  Tutors  to  read  and  expound  places  of 
Homer,  Virgil,  Horace,  Euripides,  or  other  Greek  and  Latin 
authors,  at  those  times  (in  the  forenoon,  or  afternoon,  or  after 
beaver-times)  wherein  the  scholars  were  in  the  school  in 
expectation  of  the  Mr.  The  scholars  were  governed  by 
several  Monitores  (two  for  the  Hall,  as  many  for  the  Church, 
the  School,  the  Fields,  the  cloyster  —  which  last  attended 
them  to  washing,  and  were  called  Monitores  immundorum). 
The  Captain  of  the  School  was  over  all  these,  and  therefore 
called  Monitor  Monitorum.  These  Monitors  kept  them 
strictly  to  speaking  of  Latin,  in  their  several  commands ;  and 
withal  they  presented  their  complaints  or  Accusations  (as  we 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        527 

called  them)  every  Friday  morning,  when  the  punishments 
were  often  redeemed  by  exercises,  or  favours  shown  to  boys 
of  extraordinary  merit,  who  had  the  honour  (by  the  Monitor 
Monitorum)  many  times  to  beg  and  prevail  for  such  remis- 
sions. And  so,  at  other  times,  other  faults  were  often  punished 
by  scholastical  tasks,  as  repeating  whole  orations  out  of  Tullie, 
I  socrates,  Demosthenes,  or  speeches  out  of  Virgil,  Thucydides, 
Xenophon,  Euripides,  &c." 

In  the  great  survey  of  all  of  these  schools  in  England  made 
by  Carlisle,  well  into  the  nineteenth  century,  the  curriculum 
of  the  same  school  —  though  the  curriculum  is  everywhere 
practically  the  same  and  deserving  of  only  a  sentence  or  so  in 
the  many  pages  devoted  to  each  school — is  as  follows: 
"  The  Latin  and  Greek  Grammars  of  the  College  only  are 
used.  The  routine  of  Education  comprises  the  Classics 
throughout,  and  Composition  in  Verse  and  Prose.  The  other 
parts  of  education,  such  as  French,  Arithmetic,  Mathematics, 
etc.,  are  not  taught  in  this  School." 

In  Eton,  the  most  important  of  all  these  schools,  mathe- 
matics, though  taught  privately  by  some  of  the  masters  much 
earlier,  was  not  introduced  as  a  part  of  the  curriculum  until 
near  the  middle  of  the  century.  The  reforms  since  the 
middle  of  the  century  have  introduced  the  modern  side, — 
modern  languages  and  the  sciences,  —  but  the  conception  of 
education  is  yet  much  the  same. 

In  the  English  universities  the  spirit  until  very  recent  times 
was  similar.  The  classics  and  mathematics  constitute  the 
bulk  of  the  curriculum.  From  these,  until  1850  at  Oxford 
and  until  1851  at  Cambridge,  the  subjects  for  examination 
must  be  chosen.  The  fact  that  none  of  the  great  scientists 
of  the  nineteenth  century  either  was  trained  or  did  his  life's 
work  in  connection  with  the  universities  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  evidences  of  the  narrow  conception  of  education 
prevailing  therein. 

In  Germany.  —  No  more  significant  evidence  of  the  hold  of 


528  History  of  Education 

this  conception  upon  the  German  educators  cou!d  be  found 
than  the  term  applied  to  their  representative  school  —  the 
gymnasium^  the  place  for  the  discipline,  training  or  gymnastic 
of  the  mind,  as  with  the  old  Greek  the  gymnasium  had 
become,  when  this  higher  training  of  the  mind  had  replaced 
the  previous  training  of  the  body. 

As  noticed  in  the  previous  chapter,  the  realistic  conception 
of  education  found  no  response  in  the  schools  until  near  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Even  then  it  was  quite 
slight  for  the  remainder  of  the  century.  The  narrow  human- 
istic education  upon  the  disciplinary  basis  prevailed  almost 
universally.  There  existed  as  yet  little  national  spirit  that  de- 
manded an  education  as  a  basis  for  the  unification  in  spirit  of 
the  German  people.  Such  unity  in  ideas  and  in  spirit  as  they 
possessed  was  largely  due  to  the  Church,  which  controlled 
education  as  a  means  subordinate  to  itself.  The  Church  here 
as  elsewhere  held  the  disciplinary  conception  of  education. 
The  awakening  at  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
which  gave  to  the  German  people  an  entirely  new  conception 
of  the  purpose  of  education,  is  to  be  noticed  later.  This 
change  in  conception  of  purpose  modified  the  conception  of 
method  or  procedure,  or  at  least,  relegated  the  disciplinary 
thought  to  a  secondary  place.  The  New  Humanism  would 
use  the  classical  languages  for  an  entirely  different  purpose, 
—  that  of  developing  individualism  and  national  spirit  and 
vitality,  through  the  spirit  and  substance  of  the  ancient,  espe- 
cially Greek  life.  Latin  became  secondary  to  Greek,  and  the 
formal  study  for  discipline  and  for  scholastic  form  was  re- 
placed by  the  ideal  of  culture  as  shown  in  a  life  of  activity. 
But  political  reaction,  followed  by  revolution,  produced  a 
decided  educational  reaction,  and  the  disciplinary  idea  as  the 
bulwark  of  authority  again  became  dominant.  Even  as  late 
as  1892,  the  German  emperor,  speaking  of  the  character  of  the 
education  dominant  in  the  German  higher  schools,  could 
say:  — 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        529 

"  If  any  one  enters  into  a  discussion  with  these  gentlemen 
[the  supporters  of  the  rigid  classical  gymnasien]  on  this  point, 
and  attempts  to  show  them  that  a  young  man  ought  to  be 
prepared,  to  some  extent  at  least,  for  life  and  its  manifold 
problems,  they  will  tell  him  that  such  is  not  the  function  of 
the  school,  its  principal  aim  being  the  discipline  or  gymnastic 
of  the  mind,  and  that  if  this  gymnastic  were  properly  con- 
ducted the  young  man  would  be  capable  of  doing  all  that  is 
necessary  in  life.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  we  can  no  longer 
be  guided  by  this  doctrine." 

In  America.  —  In  our  own  country  the  breaking  away  from 
the  dominance  of  the  old  ideas  came  much  earlier,  on  account 
of  social  reasons.  However,  the  disciplinary  idea  is  held  quite 
widely  even  yet  and  controls  much  of  school  work.  When 
the  old  Latin  grammar  schools  gave  way  to  the  academies, 
in  the  later  eighteenth  century,  the  first  step  was  made. 
The  encroachment  of  the  sciences  and  the  modern  culture 
subjects  in  the  colleges  went  on  gradually,  until  by  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century  they  were  well  established.  With 
the  adoption  of  the  elective  system,  the  old  disciplinarian 
basis  was  largely  abandoned,  as  it  has  been  since  even  in  the 
collegiate  study  of  the  classical  languages. 

Strange  to  say,  it  was  in  the  field  of  elementary  education 
that  the  conception  dominated  the  longer.  The  idea  did  not 
control  so  completely  that  subjects  valuable  for  their  con- 
tent were  altogether  excluded;  yet,  until  recently,  the  form 
studies,  such  as  grammar,  arithmetic,  and  spelling,  constituted 
the  core  and,  in  quantity,  the  bulk  of  the  elementary  curric- 
ulum. The  training,  or  discipline,  given  by  these  subjects 
was  held  to  be  the  element  of  chief  importance  in  the  early 
years  of  schooling.  Little  by  little,  since  the  opening  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  content  studies,  such  as  literature, 
history,  geography,  and  the  natural  sciences  have  made  their 
way  from  the  academies  and  secondary  schools  down  into  the 
elementary  grades.  The  reasons  underlying  these  changes 
are  to  be  discussed  in  subsequent  chapters. 
an 


530  History  of  Education 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

(a)  The  Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education. 

Bain,  Education  as  a  Science.     (New  York,  1893.) 

Farrar,  Essays  on  a  Liberal  Education,     (London,  1868.) 

Fouiltee,  Education  from  a  National  Standpoint.     (New  York,  1892.) 

Hinsdale,    The    Dogma    of  Formal   Discipline.     Educational    Review 

Vol.  VIII,  p.  128. 

Knox,  Vicesimus,  Liberal  Education.     (London,  1752.) 
Mill,  J.  S.,  Inaugural  Address. 

O'Shea,  Education  as  Adjustment,  pp.  246-284.     (New  York,  1903.) 
Thorndike,  Educational  Psychology,  Ch.  VIII.     (New  York,  1903.) 
Wendell,    Our  National  Superstition.      North  American  Re-view,  Vol 

CLXX1X,  p.  388. 
Whewell,  Of  a  Liberal  Education. 
Youmans,  Culture  demanded  by  Modern  Life,  Ch.  I. 

(b)  Disciplinary  Education  in  the  Schools. 

Arnold,  Essays  on  Discipline  of  Public  Schools. 

Arnold,  Essays  on  Rngby  School —  Use  of  Classics.     In  Miscellaneous 

Works.     (New  York,  1845.) 

Carlisle,  Endowed  Schools.     2  vols.     (London,  1818.) 
Collins,  The  Public  Schools.     (London,  1848.) 
Russell,  German  Higher  Schools,  pp.  46-108.     (New  York,  1898.) 
Tarver,  Observations  of  a  Foster  Parent.     (London,  1897.) 

(c)  John  Locke. 

Barnard,  English  Pedagogy,  First  Series,  pp.  207-342.     (Hartford,  1876.) 

Bourne,  Life  of  John  Locke.     2  vols.     (New  York,  1876.) 

Browning,  Educational  Theories,  pp.  118-135.     (New  York,  1888.) 

Fowler,  John  Locke.     (London,  1880.) 

Gill,  System  of  Education,  pp.  19-38.     (Boston,  1899.) 

Laurie,  Educational  Opinion  Since  the  Renaissance,  pp.  181-235. 

Locke,  Thoughts  on  Education. 

Locke,  Conduct  of  the  Human  Understanding. 

Locke,  Of  Study  (in  Quick.  John  Locke),  pp.  182-203. 

Munroe,  The  Educational  Ideal,  pp.  75-124.     (Boston,  1896.) 

Quick,  Educational  Reformers,  pp.  219-238.     (New  York,  1892.) 

Quick,  Locke  on  Education.     (Cambridge,  1899.) 


Disciplinary  Conception  of  Education        531 


TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  INVESTIGATION 

1.  What  similarities  and  dissimilarities  between  the  disciplinary  educa- 
tion of  the  Middle  Ages  and  that  of  modern  times? 

2.  What  historical  connection  between  the  disciplinary  idea  of  education 
of  the  Middle  Ages  and  its  revival  during  the  seventeenth  century? 

3.  What  points  of  disagreement  do  you  find  between  the  philosophical 
and  psychological  theories  of  Locke  and  his  educational  doctrines  ? 

4.  What  are  the  arguments  advanced  by  John  Stuart  Mill  and  Professor 
Whewell  in  their  controversy  of  the  early  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
concerning  the  educational  value  of  the  classics  and  mathematics  ? 

5.  In  what  respects  did  the  religious  view  of  the  past  centuries  support 
the  disciplinary  conception  of  education? 

6.  What  are  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  disciplinary  conception  of 
education  advanced  in  the  Cambridge  Essays  ? 

7.  In  what  details  does  Locke  agree  with  the  sense-realists  in  their 
view  of  education? 

8.  In  what  with  Montaigne?    With  Rousseau? 

9.  Give  an  account  of  the  work  of  one  of  the  English  public  schools 
previous  to  1850.     At  the  present  time. 

10.  To  what  extent  did  the  disciplinary  view  prevail  in  the  early  Ameri- 
can colleges?    Give  a  detailed  account. 

1 1 .  Give  an  analysis  of  the  conception  of  the  disciplinary  education  as 
expounded  at  present. 

12.  What  is  the  explanation  of  the  fact  that  the  public  and  the  press 
frequently  support  the  old  disciplinary  view  of  education  in  opposition  to 
modern  modifications  of  educational  practices  ? 

13.  State  the  problem  of  disciplinary  education  of  our  elementary 
schools  of  the  present. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  EDUCATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  DURING  raft 
SEVENTEENTH  AND  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURIES 


POLITICAL 

LITERARY 
MEN, 

SCIENTISTS, 

EDUCATIONAL 

EVENTS  AND 

RELIGIOUS 

PHILOSO- 

WRITINGS  AND 

EDUCATIONAL  EVENTS 

PERSONAGES 

LEADERS, 

PHERS, 
ETC. 

EDUCATORS 

ETC. 

1600. 

Bunyan 

Galileo 

Ratich  .  1571-1635 

1619.     First  Natural  Science  As- 

1618-1648. 

1628  1688 

1564-1642 

Comenius 

sociation  (Rostock). 

Thirty  Years' 
War. 

George  Fox 
1624-1691 

Hugo 
Grotius 

1592-1671 
Comenius's 

1619.     First  comp.  ed.   (Weimar)  . 
1633.     First  el.  school  in  America 

1620.    Plymouth 

Spener 

1583-1645 

Great 

(N.Y.). 

settled. 

(Pietist) 

Bacon 

Didactic    .  1630 

1635.     Boston  Latin.    Grammar 

1648.    Peace  of 

1637-1702 

1561-1626 

Comenius's  Ortis 

School. 

Westphalia. 

1673.    Test 

Harvey 

Pictus  .    .  1657 

1636.     Harvard  founded. 

1649.    Charles  I 

Act,  Eng. 

1578-1657 

Milton's 

1642.    School  reforms  of  Gotha. 

beheaded. 
1660.    Restora- 

1685.   Edict 
of  Nantes 

Hobbes 
1588-1679 

Tractate  .  1644 
Fenelon's  Ed.  of 

1643.     Port  Royal  "  Little 
Schools." 

tion. 

revoked. 

Des  Cartes 

Girls     .     .  1687 

1647.     Comp.  School  law  in  Mass 

Louis  XIV 

1643-1715 
1679.     Habeas 

1695. 
Toleration 
Act,  Eng. 

1596-1650 
Boyle 
1627-1691 

LasaKe's 
Institutes,    1684 
Locke's 

1693.    William  and  Mary  founded 
1694.     First  modern  university. 
(Halle  founded.) 

Corpus  Act. 

Corneille 

Thoughts  .  1693 

1697.    Teachers'  seminary  at 

1688      English 

1606-1684 

Halle. 

Revolution. 

La  Fontaine 

1690.    Soc.  for  Prom,  of  Chris. 

1621-1685 

knowl.  founded. 

Racine 

1639-1699 

1700. 
1713.     Peace  of 
Utrecht. 

Fenelon 
1651-1715 
Montesquieu 

Newton 
1642-1727 
Leibnitz 

Francke,  1663-1727 
Rollin   .  »66t-i74i 
Julius  Hecker 

1700.    Yale  College  founded. 
1704.     First  Amencan  newspaper 
1709.     First  daily  newspaper. 

Queen  Anne 

1689-1755 

1646-1716 

1707-1768 

1724.     Compulsory  education  of 

1702-1714 

Voltaire 

Halley 

Rousseau 

both  sexes  in  Saxony. 

Frederick 

1694-1778 

1656-1742 

1712-1778 

1746.     Princeton  founded. 

William  of 

Pope 

Buffon 

Rousseau's 

1747.     First  real  schule  (in 

Prussia 

1688-1744 

1707-1788 

Entile   .     .  1762 

Berlin). 

1713-1740 

Richardson 

Linnaeus 

Johann  Basedow 

1748.     First  Lehrerseminar 

Frederick  the 

1689-1761 

1707-1778 

1723-1790 

founded. 

Great 

DeFoe 

rt               11' 

Franklin 

Salzmann 

1751.    Academy  of  Philadelphia 

1740-1786 

1661-1731 

1706-1790 

1744-1811 

founded. 

1756-1763. 
Seven  Years' 
War. 

Addison 
1672-1719 
Fielding 

Hume 
1711-1776 
Watt 

Campe  .  1746-1818 
Pestalozzi 
1746-1827 

1754.     Kings'  (now  Columbia) 
College  founded. 
1764.     Expulsion  of  Jesuits  from 

1757.     British 
East  India 

1707-1757 
Gray 

1736-1819 
Lavosier 

Pestalozzi's 
Leonard  and 

France. 
1763.     Special  training  required 

Empire 

1716  1771 

1743-1794 

Gertrude  .  1781 

of  all  German  teachers. 

founded. 

Jonathan 

Priestley 

Knox,  Liberal 

1763.     Founding  of  present 

1772.     Partition 

Edwards 

1733-1804 

Education    1781 

system  of  Prussian  schools. 

of  Poland. 

1703-1758 

Adam 

Edgeworth, 

1774-1793.     Basedow's 

I759~I773  to 

John 

Smith 

Practical 

Philanth  ropinum. 

1814.    Jesuit 

Wesley 

1723-1790 

Education    1798 

1783.     Sunday-schools  founded. 

Order 

1703-1791 

Lamarck 

Jean  Paul  Richter 

1784     University  of  State  of 

suppressed. 

Diderot 

1744-1829 

1763-1825 

New  York. 

1775-1783. 

1713-1784 

Werner 

Frederick 

1785.     Land  endowments  for 

American 

Helve"tius 

1750-1817 

Augustus  Wolf 

public  schools  in  United  States. 

Revolution. 

1715-1771 

Kant 

1759-1824 

1785.    Webster's  Speller. 

1789.     First 
President 

Condillac 
1715-1780 

1724-1804 
Herschel 

Bell's  Experi- 
ment in 

1794.     All  Prussian  teachers 
declared  State  officials. 

inaugurated. 

Burns 

1738-1832 

Education,  1798 

1793.     Decree  of  Rev.  Convention 

1789.     States 

1759-1796 

Schleier- 

Lancaster's 

on  education. 

General. 

Schiller 

macher 

Monitorial 

1794.    National  Normal  School 

Louis  XVI 

1759-1805 

1768-1834 

System      .  1798 

in  France. 

1774-1792 

Fichte 

Andrew  Bell 

1795.    Primary  education 

1799.    Bonaparte 

1762-1814 

1753-1832 

established  in  France. 

overthrows 

Laplace 

Joseph  Lancaster 

1795.    Lindley  Murray's  English 

Directory. 

1749-1827 

1778-1838 

grammar. 

Humboldt 

Noah  Webster     " 

1798.    Monitorial  System 

1800. 

1767-1835 

1758-1843 

established. 

S3* 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   NATURALISTIC   TENDENCY   IN    EDUCATION  ; 
ROUSSEAU 

RELATION  TO  PREVIOUS  MOVEMENTS  AND  TO  THE 
TIMES.  —  In  order  to  understand  the  origin  of  the  naturalis- 
tic movement  in  educational  thought  and  practice,  one  must 
return  to  the  various  phases  of  the  realistic  movement  in  the 
seventeenth  and  early  eighteenth  centuries ;  for  out  of  these 
grew  two  movements  which  explain  the  formalism  of  the 
eighteenth  century  against  which  naturalism  arose  as  a  pro- 
test. The  first  of  these  was  the  orthodox  religious  formalism ; 
the  second  was  the  rationalistic  formalism  of  The  Enlighten 
went. 

On  the  one  hand  is  found  the  formalism  in  religious 
thought  and  life  growing  out  of  pietism  in  Germany,  Jan- 
senism in  France,  and  Puritanism  in  England.  Originating 
as  protests  against  earlier  religious  formalism,  each  of  these 
religious  movements  degenerated  during  the  early  eighteenth 
century  into  another  type  of  religious  formalism.  That 
against  which  they  rebelled  had  been  a  formalism  of  observ- 
ance. Puritanism  and  pietism  were  returns  to  the  early 
Reformation  emphasis  on  faith,  to  the  simplicity  of  a  non- 
ritualistic  worship,  and  the  earnestness  of  an  intensely  devo- 
tional life,  which  found  expression  in  the  conduct  of  everyday 
life.  Jansenism  was  an  emphasis  on  faith  and  an  opposition 
to  the  ceremonial  expression  of  religious  feeling  that  was 
in  strong  contrast  to  the  characteristic  beliefs  and  practices 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  general.  These  reform 


534  History  of  Education 

tendencies  had  degenerated  into  a  type  of  life  that  posited 
ideals  impossible  of  actual  realization  by  the  masses  of  the 
people  or  even  by  the  majority  of  their  devotees ;  ideals  which 
made  the  simplest  amusements  and  pleasures  heinous  sins ; 
and  which,  consequently,  perpetuated,  even  if  they  did  not 
develop,  a  piety  that  on  the  part  of  many  became  affectation 
and  hypocrisy,  and  on  the  part  of  others  became  fanaticism 
and  a  menace.  The  heinousness  of  bell  ringing  and  ball  play- 
ing to  John  Bunyan  furnishes  an  example  of  this  extreme 
pietism ;  but  the  reaction  as  seen  in  the  depth  and  sincerity  of 
Bunyan's  religious  experience  was  radically  different  from  the 
prevailing  spirit  of  a  generation  or  so  later.  A  tone  of  cant 
was  introduced  into  literature  and  social  intercourse,  and 
underneath  this  a  frivolity  and  licentiousness  was  introduced 
into  the  life  of  the  times.  There  occurred  a  notable  hiatus 
between  profession  and  action,  between  faith  formally  ac- 
cepted and  life  actually  lived.  The  resulting  hypocrisy  was 
despised  by  those  who,  either  through  weakness  of  character 
or  through  social  situation,  were  compelled  to  conform,  and 
by  those  who  honestly  believed  in  the  impotency  of  such 
rigid  ideals  of  conduct  and  who  had  greater  faith  in  the  gen- 
uineness of  human  nature  and  the  permissibility  of  the  relaxa- 
tion and  pleasures  which  it  craved. 

The  dominant  formalism  in  France  was  of  a  somewhat 
different  type.  Here  the  Church  retained  all  its  former 
power,  and  exerted  a  most  oppressive  influence  over  thought 
and  action.  The  reigning  monarchs  made  amends  for  their 
licentiousness  by  persecution  and  inquisitorial  torturing  of 
those  who  dared  question  the  authority  of  the  Church,  and 
purchased  a  similar  indulgence  for  their  aristocracy  by  a 
most  intense  loyalty  to  formal  orthodoxy.  "  Ceremonial  dis- 
play and  outward  magnificence  merely  veiled  moral  meanness 
and  inward  depravity  ;  punctilious  attention  to  the  rites  of  the 
Church,  and  a  blind  or  feigned  orthodoxy,  only  favored  the 
spread  of  hypocrisy  and  of  a  secret  and  cynical  skepticism." 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         535 

This  is  the  summary  drawn  by  Flint.  France  had  been  dur- 
ing the  seventeenth  century  the  first  nation  of  the  world,  and 
during  the  seventeenth  and  early  eighteenth  centuries  hao 
passed  through  a  period  comparable  to  the  Periclean  01 
Augustan  ages  of  ancient  civilizations.  Victorious  in  war 
France  had  spread  abroad  her  power  into  other  continents 
and  possessed  a  court  more  brilliant  than  any  in  modern 
times.  The  French  state  was  the  model  of  absolutism ; 
French  aristocracy  had  become  possessed  of  all  power  and 
wealth.  The  French  language  was  the  language  of  the 
courts  of  Europe  and  of  international  communication ;  French 
literature  had  reached  a  beauty  of  form  not  then  attained  by 
any  other  modern  language ;  French  manners  had  attained 
a  refinement  and  French  society  a  perfection  in  form  and  in 
attractiveness  that  caused  them  to  be  imitated  throughout 
Europe  as  the  highest  product  of  civilization.  But  the  bril- 
liancy of  Paris  had  been  purchased  at  the  expense  of  the 
provinces ;  the  power  of  the  king  had  been  bought  with  the 
slavery  of  his  people ;  his  success  in  war  with  the  impover- 
ishment of  the  country ;  the  extravagance  of  aristocratic 
society  with  the  sordid  lives  of  the  common  people.  The 
supremacy  of  the  orthodox  Church  had  been  brought  about 
by  the  suppression  of  all  right  of  individual  judgment;  the 
support  of  the  nobility  for  the  Church  and  State  had  been 
secured  by  unjust  privileges  and  corrupt  lives.  In  England 
similar  pretentious  piety  and  orthodoxy  could  exist  alongside 
of  laws  that  enumerated  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  offenses 
punishable  by  death.  Nor  were  these  mere  statutory  forms, 
for  there  were  many  executions  for  most  trivial  offenses. 
Upon  the  Continent  the  Inquisition  was  even  yet  in  operation. 
In  Spain,  in  1723,  the  daughter  of  the  regent  of  France  was 
treated  to  the  public  spectacle  of  the  burning  alive  of  nine 
heretics  as  a  part  of  her  marriage  festivities.  France  yet  for- 
bade the  burial  of  the  bodies  of  heretics  in  any  cemetery; 
and,  in  the  centers  more  remote  from  the  "  enlightenment " 


536  History  of  Education 

of  the  capital,  scoffing  heretics  yet  had  their  tongues  torn 
out  It  is  true  that  it  was  only  the  books  of  Rousseau  that 
were  burned  by  public  hangmen,  but  two  generations  earlier 
it  would  have  been  the  author  instead  of  his  writings. 

The  picture  has  been  painted  many  times,  but  it  takes  a 
large  canvas  for  the  details.  Sufficient  to  say,  that  there 
prevailed  an  absolutism  in  politics,  in  religion,  in  thought, 
and  in  action  that  could  continue  only  so  long  as  great  abil 
ity  was  found  in  the  rulers  and  so  long  as  no  one  arose  to 
lead  the  masses  in  revolt.  The  first  revolt  was  that  of  the 
intellect  against  repression ;  the  second  was  that  of  the 
masses  for  the  rights  of  the  common  man.  On  the  thought 
side  these  two  movements  had  much  in  common  and  are 
often  included  together.  Yet,  in  certain  fundamental  things, 
like  formalism  and  aristocracy,  there  was  a  radical  diver- 
gence between  them.  This  divergence  gave  to  the  natural- 
istic movement  its  chief  features,  and  differentiates  the  latter 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century  from  the  first  half. 

However,  it  must  be  noted,  that  the  two  movements  cannot 
be  sharply  differentiated,  and  that  they  are  often  included 
together  under  the  term  here  restricted  in  its  application 
to  the  first  period  alone.  Such  a  use  necessitates  an  odd 
grouping  of  men.  The  quiet,  timid,  even  pious  Locke, 
who  may  be  said  to  have  begun  the  movement,  the  satirical 
Voltaire  and  Swift,  the  formalistic  Pope  and  Chesterfield, 
the  emotionalistic  Rousseau  and  Wordsworth,  the  anarchistic 
Danton  and  Robespierre  —  all  participated.  Thus  in  some 
respects  the  greatest  diversity  of  ideas  as  well  as  of  methods 
are  represented.  The  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century 
marks  the  complete  break  from  the  old  system  of  thought 
and  of  social  order,  and  the  origin  of  the  new  systems  of 
thought  and  of  instruction  which  we  call  modern.  But  it 
was  the  entire  thought-movement  of  the  century  which  pro- 
duced this.  Therefore  it  is  necessary  to  note  the  character- 
istics of  both  phases  in  order  to  understand  the  social  and 


Naturalistic  Tendency  in  Education         537 

intellectual  development  of  the  century ;  but  it  is  the  latter 
phase,  the  naturalistic  tendency,  which  is  of  peculiar  interest 
to  us,  on  account  of  its  influence  in  the  shaping  of  educa- 
tional thought. 

THE  ILLUMINATION,  OR  THE  ENLIGHTENMENT,  is  the 

term  given  to  this  movement  of  the  early  eighteenth  century, 
though  frequently  it  is  used  to  include  the  latter  part  of  the 
century  as  well.  The  latter  movement  —  the  naturalistic 
one  —  was  made  possible  by  the  earlier  one,  —  the  Enlighten- 
ment, —  and  includes  some  features  common  to  it.  The  term 
illnminati  possesses  greater  definiteness  and  is  applied  to  the 
group  of  philosophers,  theological  writers  and  "  freethinkers  " 
and  literary  writers  of  Germany  and  France  in  the  early  part 
of  the  century. 

This  new  movement,  though  it  was  a  most  notable  step  in 
the  development  of  human  freedom,  was  in  its  outcome  but 
a  new  type  of  formalism,  —  the  second  spoken  of  as  resulting 
from  reaction  to  the  earlier  realistic  movement.  This  eight- 
eenth-century formalism  was  materialistic  as  the  former  had 
been  pietistic ;  skeptical  and  rationalistic  as  the  former  had 
been  religious  and  devotional  —  or  at  least  ceremonial; 
aristocratic  as  that  had  been  democratic.  Holding  that 
morality  consisted  in  the  observance  of  form  and  the  preser- 
vation of  proper  outward  appearance,  it  permitted  the  gross- 
est immorality,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  literature  of  the  times. 
Rejecting  the  practices  of  Puritanism  and  pietism  as  hypoc- 
risy and  revealed  religion  as  superstition,  it  became  openly 
atheistic  or  skeptical,  and  as  with  Hume  and  Gibbon  in 
England  and  Voltaire  and  the  encyclopedists  in  France, 
interpreted  life  from  that  position.  In  its  origin  it  was  a 
reaction  against  the  existing  formalism  in  thought  and  in 
belief,  and  against  the  absolutism  of  the  Church. 

At  bottom  a  protest  against  antiquated  and  arbitrary  sys- 
tems of  thought  and  of  society,  the  Enlightenment  rebelled 


538  History  of  Education 

against  hierarchy  and  despotism  in  Church,  State,  and  society, 
against  superstition  and  ignorance  in  thought;  against  hy- 
pocrisy in  morals ;  —  though  often,  as  the  price  of  freedom, 
with  the  resultant  extreme  of  anarchism  in  social  order,  athe- 
ism and  skepticism  in  thought,  and  license  in  morals.  Estab 
lishing  as  its  fundamental  principle  a  complete  reliance  upon 
human  understanding  and  reason,  it  opposed  all  ancient 
abuses  and  along  with  these  all  forms  of  tyranny,  whether 
in  thought,  in  government,  or  in  morals.  Finally,  it  attacked 
the  very  foundations  of  all  the  institutions  through  which 
such  authority  was  exercised,  thus  destroying  or  eliminating 
for  the  time  being  much  that  was  woven  into  the  very  texture 
of  a  stable  society  and  is  ever  essential  to  it.  Through  human 
reason  alone  was  any  true  estimate  of  life  now  to  be  formu- 
lated and  human  happiness  attained. 

The  aim  of  the  Enlightenment  was  to  liberate  the  mind 
from  the  dominance  of  supernatural  terrorism ;  to  establish 
the  moral  personality  of  the  individual  independent  of  ecclesi- 
astical and  social  forms ;  to  demonstrate  the  intellectual 
freedom  and  sufficiency  of  man ;  to  destroy  the  terrorisms 
over  the  feelings,  the  absolutism  over  thought,  the  tyranny 
over  action,  exercised  especially  by  the  Church,  and,  as  sup- 
plementing the  Church,  the  monarchy.  The  Enlightenment 
posited  a  supreme  faith  in  the  reason  of  the  individual,  in 
justice  in  the  state,  in  toleration  in  religious  beliefs,  in  liberty 
in  political  action,  and  in  the  rights  of  man.  The  entire  period 
was  controlled  by  a  profound  belief  in  the  prerogative  of  the 
individual,  his  right  to  individual  judgment,  and  to  the 
determination  of  every  question  uninfluenced  by  the  beliefs 
and  superstitions  of  the  Church  and  the  traditions  of  society. 
Freedom  of  thought,  liberty  of  conscience,  sufficiency  of  reason 
for  the  conduct  of  life,  were  thus  the  watchwords  and  the 
keys  of  interpretation  of  this  eighteenth-century  movement. 

There  were  various  phases  to  this  new  movement  now  to 
be  briefly  stated.  Most  fundamental  among  these  was  the 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         539 

philosophical  phase.  In  this  respect  the  movement  began  in 
England  with  Locke,  who  stated  the  questions  to  be  solved 
and  indicated  the  source  of  the  answers.  Rejecting  the 
older  speculative  philosophies,  he  sought  the  actual  source  of 
knowledge,  the  degree  of  its  validity,  and  the  extent  to  which 
human  insight  reached.  All  these  questions  were  to  be  set- 
tled by  investigation.  The  philosopher's  rule  was  later  formu- 
lated into  the  poet's  dictum,  "  The  proper  study  of  mankind 
is  man."  They  held  that  all  ideas  arise  from  experience ;  that 
there  are  none  innate.  Sensation  to  them  was  the  primary 
source  of  all  knowledge  ;  though  reflection  was  a  secondary 
source.  Philosophy  delineated  the  secular  view  of  life, 
individualism  was  emphasized,  the  reason  exalted.  Sole  re- 
liance was  to  be  placed  in  the  human  understanding. 

If  philosophy  furnished  the  fundamental  element  in  the 
Enlightenment,  the  religious  phase  was  certainly  the  most 
prominent.  While  Locke  wrote  in  defense  of  religion,  this 
did  not  prevent  his  philosophy  from  becoming  the  basis  of 
all  attacks  upon  it.  The  emphasis  on  reason  was  so  promi- 
nent that  the  term  "  rationalism,"  in  its  narrower  technical 
meaning,  yet  indicates  that  particular  movement  which 
opposed  both  the  belief  in  the  supernatural  religion  of  the 
Church  and  in  the  naturalistic  religion  of  the  succeeding 
period.  To  the  rationalists  the  human  understanding  was 
the  final  test  of  religious  truth.  Rationalism  rejected  revela- 
tion either  as  false  or,  since  merely  confirmatory  in  its  main 
points  to  the  teachings  already  given  by  reason,  as  unneces- 
sary. The  orthodoxy  of  the  times,  previously  mentioned  as 
productive  of  the  pietistic  movement  and  as  responsible  for 
the  formalism  in  education,  prepared  the  way  for  rationalism 
through  its  own  emphasis  upon  the  importance  of  logical 
statement  and  through  its  neglect  of  the  spirit  of  religion. 

But  to  the  French  philosophers  and  writers  this  religious 
phase  of  the  movement  took  upon  itself  a  more  practical 
character.  There  it  was  not  only  the  formalism  of  belief,  but 


540  History  of  Education 

the  formalism  of  life  and  of  ceremonial  that  was  objected  to ; 
not  only  the  superstition  in  thought,  but  the  immorality  and 
heartlessness  in  action  that  was  striven  against ;  not  only 
the  harshness  of  orthodoxy,  but  the  violence  and  the  tyranny, 
the  persecution  and  the  terrorism  produced  in  suppressing 
all  difference  in  opinion,  that  called  forth  the  opposition  of 
these  men  to  the  one  great  force,  that,  as  they  believed, 
opposed  the  exercise  of  individual  judgment,  the  use  of  rea- 
son, the  development  of  intelligence,  and  the  progress  of 
society.  Against  the  Church,  then,  they  concentrated  all 
their  efforts.  Voltaire  (1694-1788)  devoted  his  long  life, 
productive  of  literary  works  numbering  among  the  hundreds, 
to  the  overthrow  of  "The  Infamous,"  as  the  Church  was 
termed.  As  Louis  XIV  remarked,  "  I  am  the  state,"  Vol- 
taire, it  is  said,  might  well  repeat,  "  I  am  the  century." 
Voltaire  and  his  co-workers  identified  the  obscurantist  ecclesi- 
asticism  of  the  times  with  Christianity,  Christianity  with 
religion,  and  boldly  argued  that  all  religion  was  an  evil,  an 
impediment  to  progress,  a  tyrant  over  reason,  and  that  the 
Church  was  the  great  curse  of  the  times,  —  was  "  The 
Infamy."  Judged  from  the  point  of  view  of  those  attacked, 
it  has  usually  seemed  that  the  aim  of  Voltaire  and  his  fol- 
lowers was  merely  negative  and  destructive.  Yet  he  chiefly 
attacked  narrow  dogmatism,  persecution,  inhumanity,  special 
privileges,  which  were  in  those  times  all  summed  up  in  the 
Church,  and  aimed  to  make  them  hated  by  all.  His  posi- 
tive aim  was  to  free  human  thought  from  the  superstition  and 
bondage  of  tradition,  to  establish  the  right  of  individual 
judgment,  to  further  the  enlightenment  of  the  people  and  the 
exaltation  of  reason.  If  reason  is  to  be  the  guide  to  life  and 
the  test  of  all  custom  and  institutional  life,  it  is  necessary  to 
free  it  from  prejudice  and  superstition.  Since,  as  the  illumi- 
nati  held,  these  are  rooted  in  religion,  fostered  and  preserved 
by  the  Church,  it  is  necessary  to  overthrow  the  Church  and  to 
substitute  a  religion  of  reason  or  of  nature.  To  this  modified 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         541 

belief  in  a  natural  religion,  Voltaire  came  in  the  later  part  of 
his  life. 

That  phase  of  the  movement  which  was  directed  to  the 
organization  and  life  of  society  was  characterized  by  the 
dominance  of  the  same  unbounded  faith  in  reason.  Conse- 
quently the  monastic  custom,  the  celibate  life  of  the  clergy, 
the  ceremonials,  and  the  repressive  tyranny  of  the  Church 
called  forth  the  bitterest  attacks  because  of  their  "  unreason- 
ableness," rather  than  because  of  their  hollowness  and  the 
lack  of  conformity  of  ideal  with  practice.  Thus  the  same 
standard  controlled  in  regard  to  social  and  especially  political 
organization  as  did  in  the  attitude  toward  religion.  Even  in 
France,  the  idea  of  natural  rights,  of  equality  before  the 
law,  of  individual  choice  as  the  source  of  sovereignty,  and 
many  of  those  ideas  that  became  of  such  tremendous  practi- 
cal importance  in  the  latter  part  of  the  century  had  been 
often  suggested  and  elaborated.  Now  commended  by  reason, 
they  acquired  a  new  vitality,  a  new  meaning 

Another  effect  of  this  exaltation  of  reason  deserves  notice. 
Voltaire  and  his  co-workers  of  the  early  half  of  the  century 
were  no  less  aristocrats  than  those  aristocrats  of  privilege 
whom  they  opposed.  Whether  they  expressed  it  in  so  many 
words  or  not,  they  held  that  the  lower  classes  were  not  amen- 
able to  reason,  that  they  were  incapable  of  being  educated, 
that  they  were  but  little  above  the  savages,  and  consequently 
that  for  them  religion  had  a  legitimate  function. 

The  thought-movement  of  the  early  part  of  the  century 
was  aristocratic,  because  it  was  rationalistic.  It  aimed  to 
secure  the  culture  of  the  few,  the  overthrow  of  narrow  tradi- 
tionalism and  dogmatism  in  the  lives  of  those  who  controlled 
society  and  the  control  of  reason  among  the  educated  class.  It 
would  substitute  a  new  aristocracy  of  intelligence  and  wealth 
for  the  old  aristocracy  of  family,  of  position,  of  the  Church. 
It  possessed  a  cleverness,  a  wit,  a  brilliancy  that  contrasted 
with  the  narrowness  and  dullness  of  the  old ;  but  it  was  for 


542  History  of  Education 

the  chosen  few  and  had  no  regard  for  the  masses  sunk  ii 
degradation  and  overwhelmed  by  wrongs  and  tyranny 
While  the  illuminati  opposed  tyranny  and  oppression  in 
human  thought,  they  but  aspired  to  profit  by  participation  in 
the  social  and  political  privileges  of  the  few.  There  was  a 
selfishness  and  inconsistency  about  it  all  that  but  made  more 
glaring  the  injustice  to  the  many  who  must  support  the  privi- 
leges of  the  few. 

The  intellectualism,  the  aristocratic  tendency  of  the  earlier 
movement,  hdd  developed  into  a  formalism  —  a  formalism  of 
skepticism,  of  selfish  indifference,  of  polished  social  inter- 
course, of  stilted  forms  of  an  artificial  society  —  that  was 
rational  enough  to  be  sure,  but  that,  through  its  artificiality, 
had  lost  all  approach  to  a  natural  mode  of  living,  and  through 
its  cosmopolitanism  all  national  and  local  feeling.  The 
propaganda  of  the  Enlightenment  had  been  confined  to  no 
one  country ;  literature  in  the  vernacular  first  came  to  be 
cosmopolitan  through  Locke,  Pope,  and  the  novelists  of  Eng- 
land, through  Voltaire  and  the  encyclopedists  of  France 
and  the  philosophers  of  Germany.  This  stilted  wisdom  and 
affected  superiority  of  the  learned  class,  now  shunning  sim- 
plicity as  a  mark  of  vulgarity  and  naturalness  as  a  mark  of 
irrationality,  developed  into  a  formalism  that  was  no  less 
repressive  to  the  masses  and  no  less  distasteful  to  many.  The 
formalism  of  morality  into  which  the  pietistic  and  Puritanic 
morality  degenerated  is  well  illustrated  in  the  English  novels 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  especially  those  of  Richardson. 
The  formalism  of  the  Enlightenment  is  equally  well  illustrated 
in  the  conception  of  morality,  of  politeness,  and  of  sympathy 
revealed  in  Lord  Chesterfield's  Letters.  The  later  eighteenth 
century,  weary  of  the  formalism  of  both,  became,  under  the 
leadership  of  Rousseau,  directed  to  a  new  purpose. 

THE  NATURALISTIC  PHASE  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH- 
CENTURY  MOVEMENT.  —  Until  the  middle  of  the  century, 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         543 

philosophy  and  reason  concentrated  most  of  their  attacks 
upon  the  Church ;  after  the  middle  of  the  century,  criticism 
was  directed  toward  the  evils  of  the  social  and  political  organi- 
zation of  life.  The  earlier  aim  was  to  destroy  the  existing 
abuses ;  the  latter  rather  toward  building  up  an  ideal  society. 

But  there  were  other  more  fundamental  distinctions  between 
the  two  movements.  The  rule  of  reason  had  come  to  be  for 
many  no  less  a  tyranny  than  the  rule  of  authority.  As  opposed 
to  the  earlier  belief,  the  view  was  now  urged  that  the  senses 
were  not  always  to  be  depended  upon  and  that  reason  was  not 
always  infallible.  On  the  other  hand,  the  emotions  or  the  inner 
sentiments,  as  true  expressions  of  our  nature  and  as  opposed 
to  the  cold,  selfish  calculations  of  reason,  were  rather  to  be  fol- 
lowed as  the  guide  to  right  conduct.  The  movement  of  the 
latter  half  of  the  century  looked  toward  the  improvement  of 
the  masses  of  the  people,  as  the  former  had  resulted  in  the 
formation  of  an  intellectual  aristocracy. 

Rousseau  was  the  leader  of  the  one  as  Voltaire  was  the 
leader  of  the  other :  Voltaire  a  leader  in  the  first  because  of 
his  brilliant  intellectual  power  and  his  far-reaching  rational- 
ism ;  Rousseau  a  leader  in  the  second  because  of  his  deep 
emotionalism  and  his  profound  sympathy  for  the  people. 
"  If  it  is  an  explanation  of  the  popularity  of  Voltaire  that  he 
said  what  most  were  thinking,  then  we  may  say  that  Rousseau 
was  popular  because  he  gave  the  most  perfect  expression  to 
what  others  were  feeling."  *  The  early  movement  had  led  to 
freedom  of  the  intellect,  but  yet  had  tolerated,  or  preserved 
for  selfish  reasons,  the  formalism  of  social  institutions.  Since 
he  had  neither  the  ability  nor  the  training  to  move  with  ease 
in  this  formal  life  of  society  when  the  opportunity  was  given 
him,  Rousseau,  led  partly  by  personal  feeling  and  partly  by 
sympathy  for  the  common  lot  made  miserable  by  this  indif- 
ference of  the  upper  class,  revolted  most  violently  and  pro- 
pounded in  place  of  the  old  law  of  reason  the  new  gospel  of 

1  Willert  in  Acton's  Cambridge  History,   Vol.  VIII,  p.  28. 


544  History  of  Education 

faith  in  nature,  in  the  common  man,  and  in  man's  ability  to 
work  out  his  own  good  in  life.  Contrasting  with  the  majesty 
of  the  monarchy,  the  gayety  and  luxuriousness  of  the  lives  of 
the  nobility,  the  brilliancy  of  society,  La  Bruyere  drew  a  pic- 
ture of  "  certain  wild  animals,  male  and  female,  scattered  over 
the  fields,  black,  livid,  all  burnt  by  the  sun,  bound  to  the 
earth  that  they  dig  and  work  with  unconquerable  pertinacity ; 
they  have  a  sort  of  articulate  voice,  and  when  they  rise 
on  their  feet,  they  show  a  human  face,  and,  in  fact,  are 
men."  Quoting  this,  Morley  adds :  "  There  is  no  reason  to 
think  that  Voltaire  ever  saw  this  gaunt  and  tremendous  spec- 
tacle. Rousseau  was  its  first  voice.  Since  him  the  reorgani- 
zation of  the  relations  of  men  has  never  faded  from  the  sight 
either  of  statesmen  or  philosophers  with  visions  keen  enough 
to  admit  to  their  eyes  even  what  they  dreaded  and  execrated 
in  their  hearts.  Voltaire's  task  was  different  and  preparatory. 
It  was  to  make  popular  the  genius  and  authority  of  reason." 1 

But  the  task  of  the  second  half-century,  under  the  leadership 
of  Rousseau,  was  to  develop  a  new  faith  in  man,  to  work  out 
a  new  ideal  in  life,  to  infuse  a  new  spirit  into  society,  and  to 
reestablish  a  basis  for  religion  in  man's  nature.  When  we 
take  the  old  period  and  the  new,  each  at  its  best,  we  find 
a  profound  difference  between  them.  The  same  historian 
sums  up  the  difference  between  the  attitude  of  the  natural- 
istic period  and  that  of  the  period  preceding  the  Enlighten- 
ment as  follows :  "  Faith  in  a  divine  power,  devout  obedience 
to  its  supposed  will,  hope  of  ecstatic,  unspeakable  reward, 
these  were  the  springs  of  the  old  movement.  Undivided 
love  of  our  fellows,  steadfast  faith  in  human  nature,  steadfast 
search  after  justice,  firm  aspiration  toward  improvement,  and 
generous  contentment  in  the  hope  that  others  may  reap  what- 
ever reward  may  be,  these  are  the  springs  of  the  new."  a 

One  other  aspect  of  this  difference  between  the  rationalistic 
and  the  naturalistic  movements,  between  Voltaire  and  Rous 

1  Voltaire,  pp.  27-28.  *  Morley,  Rousseau,  VoL  I,  IntrocL 


Naturalistic  Tendency  in  Education         545 

seau,  was  their  attitude  toward  religion.  Voltaire  held  that  al\ 
religion  was  an  illusion  to  the  believer  and  a  deception  by  the 
priesthood.  The  naturalists,  while  they  rejected  both  the  skep- 
ticism of  the  illuminati  and  the  old  ecclesiasticism  which  the} 
considered  to  be  the  superstition  of  orthodoxy,  held  and  popu- 
larized a  "natural  religion,"  which  included  the  morality  of 
Christianity  but  excluded  more  or  less  completely  the  super- 
natural element.  The  criticism  of  this  natural  religion  does 
not  concern  us  here  any  more  than  does  a  criticism  of  the 
position  of  the  skeptics ;  but  it  is  important  to  note  that  the 
naturalists  believed  in  religion  as  an  essential  part  of  human 
society  because  it  was  an  essential  part,  of  human  experi- 
ence. The  attitude  of  the  Revolutionary  Convention  is  a 
just  commentary  on  the  difference  between  the  two  move- 
ments in  this  respect :  they  affirmed  the  belief  of  the  French 
nation  in  a  Supreme  Being  and  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
and  accepted  the  confession  of  the  Savoyard  Vicar  (from  the 
Emile,  Bk.  IV)  as  the  established  faith.  Skepticism  and 
atheism  were  pronounced  to  be  aristocratic  and  not  to  be 
endured. 

The  general  conception  of  civilization  held  by  Voltaire  and 
his  associates  eliminated  religion ;  permitted  the  populace  no 
rights ;  had  no  sympathy  with  the  masses ;  erected  a  polished, 
intellectual  society,  preserving  its  identity  by  a  cold  formalism 
and  its  morality  by  a  punctilious  observance  of  stiff  rules ; 
accepted  reason  as  a  guide  in  thought,  materialism  as  a  stand- 
ard in  morality,  and  self-interest  or  rather  selfishness  as  the 
principle  of  action.  In  this  conception  of  society  is  to  be 
found  the  animus  of  Rousseau's  contention  that  civilization  is 
a  curse.  Of  this  contrast  Flint  states  :  — 

"  Voltaire's  appreciation  of  civilization  was  likewise  at  once 
very  sincere  so  far  as  it  went,  and  yet  very  defective.  He 
had  a  genuine  enthusiasm  for  culture  of  a  kind ;  a  keen  sense 
of  the  worth  of  science,  art,  literature,  and  social  refinement. 
But  his  idea  of  civilization  was  most  defective.  It  excluded 


2N 


546  History  of  Education 

all  earnest  religions  of  faith,  and  included  nothing  highei 
than  intellectual  cleverness,  moral  respectability,  and  polished 
manners.  It  was  not  the  idea  of  a  civilization  appropriative 
of  all  that  is  human,  comprehensive  of  all  that  educates  men- 
tal and  spiritual  life,  and  which,  while  it  should  refine  and  dis- 
cipline nature,  should  likewise  preserve  its  simplicity,  respect 
its  freedom,  and  favor  individual  and  national  originality ; 
but  rather  that  of  a  civilization  of  a  special  and  artificial  type, 
such  as  can  only  be  local  and  temporary,  and  as  was  to  be 
seen  in  all  its  glory  in  the  fashionable  salons  and  philosophic 
circles  of  Paris  in  the  Voltairian  period." J 

In  regard  to  education  in  the  schools  the  rationalistic  move- 
ment had  little  direct  influence,  though  it  controlled  the 
private  education  of  the  upper  class.  The  character  of  this 
can  be  judged  from  the  ideals  of  life  and  conduct  elaborated 
by  Lord  Chesterfield  for  his  son.  An  education  of  worldly 
wisdom,  a  perfection  in  forms  of  behavior,  a  lack  of  all  that 
is  most  serious  in  life,  an  emphasis  on  the  importance  of 
polite  conduct,  a  higher  appreciation  of  manners  and  courtli- 
ness than  of  virtue  and  seriousness,  an  attention  to  outward 
form  without  regard  to  inward  reality,  a  smattering  of 
knowledge  of  all  kinds,  a  purely  materialistic  judgment  of 
affairs  of  life,  a  nature  developed  to  decide  all  things  in  the 
cold  light  of  reason,  full  command  of  the  body,  with  opin- 
ions never  fully  revealed,  —  these  constitute  the  ideals  of  the 
education  of  the  rationalistic-aristocratic  period.  It  is  but  a 
further  formulation  of  the  social  realism  of  Montaigne,  in 
some  respects  a  degenerate  one,  though  in  others  an  advance 
upon  it.  The  connection  so  often  made  between  Rousseau 
and  Montaigne  is  because  of  their  relationship  to  the  inter- 
vening rationalistic  period ;  the  one  contributed  to  its  origin 
and  the  other  made  concrete  and  gave  a  new  form  to  its  great 
abstract  principles.  Yet  compared  with  that  advocated  by 
the  rationalists,  the  education  of  the  naturalistic  period  is 
about  as  reactionary  as  could  be  constructed. 

1  History  of  the  Philosophy  of  History  in  France,  p.  300. 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         547 

It  is  not  in  the  details  of  the  "  education  according  to 
nature  "  that  we  are  here  chiefly  interested ;  nor  in  the  funda- 
mental distinctions  it  opposes  to  the  education  of  the  rational- 
istic period.  The  main  point  to  notice  is  that  just  as  the 
great  doctrines  of  liberation  of  the  common  man  find  theii 
origin  in  the  teachings  of  Rousseau,  so  also  do  the  great 
educational  doctrines  of  the  liberation  of  the  child.  As  the 
Contrat  Social  contains  the  germs  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  of  the  American  Constitution,  so  the  Entile 
contains  the  germinal  ideas  of  the  kindergarten,  of  modern 
elementary  school  work,  and  of  the  entire  modern  conception 
of  education. 

The  extravagant  form  in  which  the  doctrines  are  stated, 
the  wild  emotional  vagaries  of  the  author,  his  offensive  per- 
sonality, his  inconsistent  career,  his  evil  influence,  —  political, 
literary,  moral,  —  should  not  blind  one  to  the  fact  that  from 
him  we  obtain  our  idea  that  education  starts  from  the  child, 
that  its  process  is  determined  by  the  child  nature,  and  that  its 
aim  is  summed  up  in  the  child's  character  and  social  relation  ; 
in  other  words,  our  idea  of  all  that  has  since  been  elaborated 
as  the  details  of  the  doctrines  and  processes  of  modern 
education. 

JEAN  JACQUES  ROUSSEAU.  —  Essentially  democratic,  as 
the  early  phase  of  the  Enlightenment  had  been  essentially 
aristocratic,  forming  at  once  the  culmination  of  the  Enlighten- 
ment and  the  basis  of  nineteenth-century  thought  and  life, 
the  naturalistic  movement  finds  both  its  origin  and  its  most 
notable  and  influential  exponent  in  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau. 
To  estimate  aright  the  ideas  and  purposes  of  this  man,  to 
understand  the  essential  principles  of  the  movement  itself 
and  its  relation  to  the  manifold  institutional  changes  soon  to 
be  brought  about,  especially  to  gain  any  conception  of  its 
bearing  on  the  development  of  educational  thought,  one  must 
be  prepared  to  lay  aside  all  prejudices  in  the  consideration  of 


548  History  of  Education 

a  character  in  whom,  probably  beyond  all  others,  is  to  be 
found  the  greatest  mixture  of  strength  and  weakness,  ot 
truth  and  falsity,  of  that  which  is  attractive  and  that  which 
is  detestable.  A  man  governed  wholly  by  his  emotions, 
possessing  the  highest  ideals  with  the  greatest  power  of 
embodying  them  in  words,  but  the  slightest  ability  to  realize 
them  in  action,  with  clear  insight,  unbounded  sympathy,  little 
accurate  knowledge  and  less  of  disciplined  power  of  mind,  he 
gave  an  impetus  to  ideas  held  and  expressed  by  many  others 
that  has  made  him  one  of  the  most  powerful  factors  in  all  his- 
tory. Napoleon  said  that  without  him  the  French  Revolution 
would  not  have  occurred ;  and,  while  it  is  impossible  to  say 
what  would  or  would  not  have  happened,  he  certainly  caused 
a  more  complete  revolution  in  educational  thought  and  prac- 
tice than  any  one  man  or  group  of  men  that  we  have  to  con- 
sider. He  it  was  who  first  preached  the  political  and  social 
gospel  of  the  common  man  and  gave  to  him  an  education  as 
a  right  by  birth.  To  quote  again  from  Morley  :  "  It  was  in 
Rousseau  that  polite  Europe  first  barkened  to  strange  voices 
and  faint  reverberations  from  out  of  the  vague  and  cavernous 
shadow  in  which  the  common  people  move." 

Rousseau  was  born  (1712)  at  Geneva,  —  a  city  renowned 
for  its  great  intellectual  and  moral  vigor,  and  its  influence  in 
these  respects  on  Europe  exerted  through  the  dominant 
Calvinism  of  the  Protestant  population  of  France,  England, 
and  Scotland.  In  Geneva  prevailed  an  earnestness  of  moral 
life,  purity  of  domestic  relations,  simplicity  of  social  order, 
freedom  of  government,  that  were  in  sharp  contrast  with  the 
luxury,  the  wealth,  the  artificiality,  the  immorality,  the  cyni- 
cism of  Parisian  life.  It  was  the  memory  of  these  early 
associations,  intensified  by  the  contrast  with  his  later  Pari- 
sian associations,  that  undoubtedly  furnished  the  elements 
of  the  ideal  natural  state  pictured  by  Rousseau ;  for  to  the 
bwrgesses  of  his  native  city,  who  later  reciprocated  by  order- 
ing his  books  burned  by  public  hangmen,  Rousseau  dedicated 


NaturaKstic  Tendency  in  Education         549 

the  work  in  which  this  ideal  is  most  clearly  set  forth,  his 
Origin  of  Inequality  among  Men.  His  training  in  early 
years  was  one  of  indulgence ;  and,  while  he  was  early  taught 
to  read,  he  devoted  his  early  years  to  the  unrestricted  devour- 
ing of  romances,  —  an  experience  which  fixed  in  him  a  native 
tendency  to  sentimentality,  even  to  sensuality.  A  few  years 
of  more  formal  education,  very  indifferently  attended  to,  failed 
to  make  any  radical  change  in  his  character  thus  early  formed. 
At  twelve  we  find  him  apprenticed  to  a  trade,  where,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  account,  he  learned  more  of  deceit,  idleness, 
and  dishonesty  than  he  did  of  craftsmanship.  Four  years  later, 
still  consulting  only  his  emotions  and  the  whims  of  sentiment, 
he  became  a  common  vagabond.  But  this  life,  continued  for 
several  years,  had  one  merit,  in  that  it  strengthened  both  his 
love  for  and  knowledge  of  nature.  Converted  one  hungry 
day  by  a  bottle  of  wine,  a  full  meal,  and  the  hospitality  of  a 
priest,  whom  he  later  makes  famous  as  the  Savoyard  Vicar, 
he  changed  his  religion  and  allowed  this  chance  incident  to 
shape  his  life  for  years.  It  is  profitless  from  our  point  of 
view  to  follow  his  life  in  detail,  except  that  one  may  see  in 
the  concrete  Rousseau's  ideal  of  education.  Of  an  emotional 
rather  than  of  a  rational  character,  exalting  natural  instincts 
and  desires  above  reason,  holding  that  moral  and  religious 
ideas  could  not  develop  in  early  childhood,  positing  that  more 
was  to  be  derived  from  association  with  nature  than  from 
communion  with  books  or  from  the  intelligence  of  others, 
that  proper  development  came  from  removing  all  restric- 
tions and  allowing  natural  tendencies  to  have  full  sway, 
—  this  conception  of  education  was  merely  the  outgrowth 
of  his  own  life.  The  only  permanent  and  elevating  interest 
he  seemed  to  possess  throughout  this  period,  as  well  as  the 
only  activity  in  which  he  possessed  any  ability,  was  music. 
As  performer  and  as  composer,  if  not  as  teacher,  he  possessed 
considerable  talent,  and  contributed  upon  his  specialty  many 
of  the  treatises  for  the  encyclopedic  publications  of  his 


55°  History  of  Education 

day.  When  about  forty,  his  aimless,  meaningless  existence 
became  possessed  of  a  great  idea — an  idea  which  gave  point 
to  his  sentimental  vaporings,  to  his  emotional  prejudices  and 
beliefs ;  an  idea  that  through  him  was  to  revolutionize  the 
social  structure  of  his  adopted  country  as  well  as  to  modify 
profoundly  that  of  many  others ;  an  idea  which  when  applied 
to  education  was  to  create  a  new  epoch  therein  as  well.  In 
brief,  the  main  idea  was  simple,  and  now  commonplace 
enough.  Human  happiness  and  human  welfare  are  the 
natural  rights  of  every  individual,  not  the  special  posses- 
sion of  a  favored  class;  legitimate  social  organization  and 
education  exist  but  to  bring  about  the  realization  of  this 
desideratum.  To  this  he  added  as  a  main  argument,  —  the 
fuse  which  was  to  explode  the  bomb,  —  science,  art,  govern- 
ment as  then  constituted,  prevented  this  realization  and 
hence  were  objects  for  destruction. 

DOCTRINE    OF    THE  "NATURAL    STATE."  — In   1749, 

coming  by  chance  across  the  theme  for  a  prize  essay  pro- 
pounded by  the  Dijon  Academy, — one  of  the  institutions 
which  during  the  eighteenth  century  did  so  much  to  make 
France  famous  in  literature,  art,  and  science,  —  Rousseau 
was  seized  with  what  he  terms  an  inspiration.  This  indeed 
was  one  of  those  spontaneous  convictions  reached  without 
any  previous  rational  reflection,  which  were  so  influential  in 
the  life  of  this  great  exponent  of  the  emotions  and  which 
were  about  as  near  an  approach  to  definite  rational  processes 
as  he  ever  reached.  The  theme  was  formulated  in  the  ques- 
tion :  "Has  the  restoration  of  the  sciences  contributed  to 
purify  or  corrupt  manners  ? "  His  answer  was  the  negative 
one  elaborated  in  the  idea  of  the  "  natural  state,"  —  an  idea 
much  discussed  during  this  period  and  by  some  even  given  the 
same  form  as  that  now  propounded  by  Rousseau.  But,  unlike 
others,  Rousseau  furnished  in  defense  of  this  thesis  an  emo- 
tional fervor  and  a  literary  style  that  carried  conviction,  and 


Naturalistic  Tendency  in  Education         551 

to  him  belongs  the  honor  of  securing  its  popular  acceptance. 
Rousseau  did  but  little  more  than  idealize  his  remembrance  of 
the  simple  Genevan  life  and  society,  together  with  that  of  his 
own  aimless,  emotional  life.  As  we  recognize  the  primitive 
man  to  be,  so  certainly  by  his  own  showing  was  Rousseau  in 
his  worst  moments,  "lying,  faithless,  slanderous,  thievish,  inde- 
cent, cruel,  cowardly,  selfish."  But  this  life  had  its  positive 
side  also ;  it  was  entirely  spontaneous ;  it  was  simple,  happy, 
contented,  earnest,  honest  —  in  the  sense  of  true  to  life;  herein 
we  find  later  one  of  its  chief  educational  bearings.  Compared 
with  the  life  which  Rousseau  contrasted  it  with, — the  formal, 
false,  hypocritical,  superficial,  unfeeling,  harsh,  selfish,  cruel, 
and  to  him  inhuman  life  of  Parisian  society,  —  this  life 
according  to  nature  had  much  to  commend  it.  Much  of  the 
unattractiveness  of  its  form  was  due  to  the  lack  of  that 
sophistication  so  characteristic  of  the  social  life  of  the  times 
and  was  more  than  counterbalanced  by  its  genuineness;  while 
its  strength  lay  in  its  recognition  of  the  worth  of  the  individual 
on  his  own  merits,  in  the  bond  of  sympathy  which  it  recognized 
as  the  universal  solvent,  in  its  passion  for  freedom  and  for  inde- 
pendence from  the  trammels  of  usage,  tradition  and  tyranny. 
Rousseau  had  now  spent  several  years  in  contact,  though 
not  in  sympathy  with,  the  society  of  culture,  wealth  and  posi- 
tion, on  the  one  hand  and,  on  the  other,  with  that  circle  of 
powerful  intellects  centered  around  Voltaire  which  controlled 
the  new  thought  and  influenced  most  of  the  political  and  social 
hierarchies  of  Europe.  With  neither  of  these  societies  had  he 
any  sympathy ;  for  the  one  principle  which  he  honestly  lived  up 
to  throughout  his  life  was  the  democratic  one, — his  feeling  for 
the  common  man,  his  belief  in  the  worth  of  the  individual. 
It  was  this  hollow  and  insincere,  though  brilliant,  witty, 
wealthy  and  "  cultured  "  society  that  was  before  him  when  he 
produced  his  famous  essays  and  those  works  for  the  following 
thirteen  years  ending  with  the  Entile,  which  were  to  render 
him  famous  and  to  revolutionize  society. 


552  History  of  Education 

The  argument,  if  argument  it  may  be  called,  stripped  of 
all  its  rhetorical  embellishment  and  wealth  of  illustration, 
conveys  little  of  the  forcefulness  and  none  of  the  fervor  of 
the  original  essay  and  the  subsequent  defenses  of  the  theme. 
Herein  we  find  the  negation  of  the  Renaissance  in  all  of  its 
phases,  including  the  rationalistic  literary  enlightenment  then 
reaching  its  culmination.  This,  for  us,  is  the  significance  of 
these  ideas  and  of  the  following  which  they  speedily  obtained. 

The  second  discourse,  On  the  Origin  of  Inequality  of  Men, 
is  devoted  largely  to  an  imaginary  description  of  the  state  of 
society  among  primitive  men.  Here  one  finds  only  the  phys- 
ical or  intellectual  inequality  established  by  nature,  which 
under  the  natural  conditions  of  primitive  life  hardly  reveals 
itself  and  hence  causes  no  diminution  of  the  happiness,  con- 
tentment, and  welfare  of  man.  Man  is  not  then  vicious,  for 
he  does  not  know  what  being  good  or  bad  is.  He  has  one 
primitive  virtue,  that  of  pity,  which  takes  the  place  of  laws, 
manners  and  customs.  It  is  reflection  which  isolates  man ;  it 
is  philosophy  which  leads  one  to  say  to  a  fellow-creature, 
"  Perish  if  needs  be ;  I  am  safe  and  sound."  Through  dif- 
ference in  natural  talent,  in  environment,  but,  more  than  all, 
through  the  rise  of  private  property,  those  social  inequalities 
arose  that  have  been  magnified  and  perpetuated  by  political 
society.  Political  power  is  developed  and  organized  to  pro- 
tect accumulated  property.  Inequality,  summed  up  in  the 
distinction  between  the  rich  and  poor,  becomes  differentiated 
into  many  forms.  It  is  to  perpetuate  these  inequalities,  of 
which  modern  society  consists,  that  all  political  power  exists. 

The  idea  of  this  discourse  leads  to  that  of  Rousseau's  chief 
political  treatise,  the  Social  Contract,  wherein  the  basal  doc- 
trines of  the  French  Revolution  as  well  as  of  our  own  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  are  laid.  Government  is  the  result  of 
a  "contract"  among  the  people,  by  which  some  are  given 
delegated  power  to  rule,  while  the  remainder  of  the  people 
give  to  the  governing  class  some  service  in  return  for  services 


Naturalistic  Tendency  in  Education         553 

performed.  Government,  thus  formed  by  agreement,  can  be 
dissolved  when  the  parties  no  longer  agree.  It  is  to  be  noted 
that  the  conception  of  the  "  natural  state  "  is  modified  in  the 
Social  Contract ;  it  is  no  longer  the  life  of  the  savage  that  is 
ideal,  but  the  life  in  society  organized  under  the  rule  of  the 
people.  Such  a  society  —  where  the  simple  tastes  and  wants 
of  the  masses  shall  dominate  and  where  an  aristocracy  with 
its  ill-gained  wealth,  leisure  time,  and  selfish  indulgence  is 
wanting  —  can  devote  itself  to  the  development  of  an  ideal 
life,  wherein  the  "  natural  man  "  is  not  hampered,  freedom 
is  not  lost,  and  the  arts  and  sciences  of  polite  society  are 
undeveloped. 

With  the  detailed  argument  of  these  Discourses,  full  of 
error  as  they  are,  we  are  not  here  concerned,  but  primarily 
with  an  exposition  of  their  fundamental  ideas  and  with  their 
influence  on  educational  thought. 

THE  "EMILE"  AND  EDUCATION  ACCORDING  TO  NA- 
TURE. —  In  this  long  tale,  part  novel,  part  didactic  exposi- 
tion, Rousseau  relates  the  proper  education  of  the  youth  by 
showing  the  training  of  the  child  taken  from  his  parents  and 
the  schools,  isolated  from  society,  and  put  into  the  hands  of 
an  ideal  tutor,  who  brings  him  up  in  contact  with  nature's 
beauties  and  nature's  wonders. 

Threefold  Meaning  of  Nature  in  the  "Emile."  —  Though 
"  education  according  to  nature  "  is  given  a  wider  meaning, 
the  doctrine  of  the  natural  state,  as  previously  defined,  here 
receives  one  of  its  fullest  expositions  and  its  most  thorough 
application.  In  the  opening  sentence  of  the  work  the  fun- 
damental principle  is  stated  :  "  Everything  is  good  as  it  comes 
from  the  hand  of  the  author  of  nature;  but  everything  degen- 
erates in  the  hands  of  man."  We  receive  our  education  from 
these  sources ;  from  nature,  from  man,  from  things.  When  the 
training  received  from  these  three  teachers  is  not  harmonized, 
the  individual  is  badly  educated.  "  He  in  whom  they  all 


554  History  of  Education 

coincide  and  tend  to  the  same  end,  he  alone  may  be  said  to 
move  toward  his  destiny  and  to  live  consistently  ;  he  alone 
is  well  educated."  Over  two  of  these  man  has  considerable 
control ;  over  the  third,  nature,  —  "  the  internal  development 
of  our  faculties,"  —  he  has  none.  Harmony  in  education  is 
obtained  by  subordinating  the  education  of  man  and  of  things 
to  that  of  nature. 

Nature  is  a  habit,  education  is  nothing  but  a  habit.  But 
habit  is  used  in  two  senses.  Primary  dispositions,  unaltered 
by  enlightenment,  by  sophistication,  or  by  suggestion  from 
others  constitute  nature.  Habit  in  this  sense  is  to  be 
followed ;  but  habit  in  its  usual  significance  indicates  that 
which  is  acquired  by  direct  imitation  of  other  human  beings, 
by  suggestion,  or  by  obedience  to  command.  Concerning 
this  Rousseau  later  says :  "  The  only  habit  which  the  child 
should  be  allowed  to  form  is  to  contract  no  habit  whatever." 
As  a  subordinate  connotation  throughout  the  treatise,  educa- 
tion according  to  nature  thus  indicates  that  the  instinctive 
judgments,  primitive  emotions,  natural  instincts,  "  first  impres- 
sions," are  more  trustworthy  as  a  basis  for  action  than  all  the 
reflection,  the  caution,  the  experience  that  comes  from  asso- 
ciation with  others.  "  Before  this  alteration  (by  habits  of 
thought  and  judgment  acquired  from  others)  these  disposi- 
tions are  what  I  call  our  nature." 

The  fundamental  meaning  of  "the  natural  state"  in  the 
Entile  is  its  social  one.  This,  however,  is  not,  as  contended 
in  the  Discourses,  that  the  state  of  primitive  man  is  superior 
to  all  higher  forms  of  culture.  But  as  in  the  Social  Contract, 
he  shows  how  a  state  of  high  culture  can  be  based  upon  a 
truer  political  principle  and  thus  a  nobler  type  of  social  life 
than  that  of  the  eighteenth  century  evolved ;  so  in  the  Emile 
he  propounds  an  education,  based  not  on  the  forms  of  society, 
the  meaningless  traditions  of  the  school  and  a  misconception 
or  entire  ignorance  of  childhood,  but  on  a  knowledge  of  the 
true  nature  of  man  As  in  the  Social  Contract  he  taught  that 


Naturalistic  Tendency  in  Education         555 

rhe  only  rights  of  man,  natural  rights,  were  those  found  in  the 
laws  of  his  own  nature,  so,  according  to  the  Entile,  education 
is  to  be  guided  by  these  same  laws.  The  "  natural  man  "  is 
not  the  savage  man,  but  man  governed  and  directed  by  the 
laws  of  his  own  nature.  Such  laws,  as  are  the  laws  of  any 
other  portion  of  nature,  are  discoverable  through  investigation. 
Most  criticisms  of  Rousseau  (and  very  many  of  these  may  be 
valid)  are  based  upon  the  fact  that  Rousseau  himself,  like 
most  others,  was  ignorant  of  the  real  facts,  certainly  of  the 
laws,  of  human  nature,  and  that,  despite  the  lack  of  actual 
knowledge,  he  was  given  to  dogmatizing. 

This  being,  according  to  Rousseau,  the  primary  meaning 
of  education  according  to  nature,  an  opposition  to  society 
follows  as  a  corollary.  "  We  must  choose  between  making 
a  man  and  a  citizen,  for  we  cannot  make  both  at  once." 
But  it  must  be  understood  that  in  a  citizen  and  in  society  he 
had  primarily  in  mind  the  civilization  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. In  the  Social  Contract  he  had  shown  how  a  high  state 
of  culture,  one  infinitely  preferable  to  the  existing  one,  could 
be  developed  on  a  different  social  principle,  that  of  individ- 
ual choice,  instead  of  that  of  arbitrary  authority.  Yet  much 
in  the  situation  is  of  general  significance  and  is  but  a  new 
form  of  the  old  problem  of  individual  rights  and  social  wel- 
fare. The  same  individualistic  solution  is  given  by  Rousseau 
as  was  given  by  the  Sophists  and  by  the  early  Renaissance 
leaders.  While  Rousseau  often  suggests  a  rather  vague  doc- 
trine of  the  primacy  of  self-love  and  love  of  goodness  among 
human  motives,  no  harmonization  of  this  conflict  is  sought 
or  found  as  it  was  by  the  Greek  philosophers  or  the  humanists 
of  the  reform  period.  As  with  the  rationalism  of  the  early 
eighteenth  century,  so  with  Rousseau,  criticism  is  negative 
and  destructive,  with  little  of  the  constructive  element  in  it. 
The  positive  interpretation  is  to  be  found  in  the  following 
period  :  philosophically,  with  Kant  and  Hegel ;  educationally, 
with  Herbart  and  Froebel. 


556  History  of  Education 

"The  natural  man  is  complete  in  himself;  he  is  the  numer- 
ical unit,  the  absolute  man  who  is  related  only  to  himself  or 
his  fellow-man.  Civilized  man  is  but  a  fractional  unit,  which 
is  dependent  on  its  denominator,  and  whose  value  consists  in 
its  relation  to  the  whole,  which  is  the  social  organization." 
Thus  does  Rousseau  hold  exactly  the  reverse  of  the  thought 
of  the  present,  which  conceives  the  natural  man  to  be  the 
fraction,  which  finds  completion  as  the  social  ma'.i  as  a  unit 
in  the  greater  unity  of  the  whole.  But  this  misanthrope,  who 
at  the  same  time  was  one  of  the  greatest  lovers  of  the  com- 
mon man  and  who  had  profound  confidence  in  human  nature, 
held  that  "the  breath  of  man  is  fatal  to  his  fellows."  This 
is  one  of  the  paradoxes  no  less  striking  in  his  life  than  in  his 
writings.  Education  for  social  institutions,  for  custom,  —  as 
these  dominated  in  Rousseau's  period  of  extreme  artificiality, 

—  he  held  to  be  mere  slavery ;  by  it  the  true  nature  of  the 
child  is  neglected  and  true  happiness  overlooked.      "  The 
whole  sum  of  human  wisdom,"  he  says,  "  consists  in  servile 
prejudices ;  our  customs  are  nothing  more  than  subjection, 
worry,  and  restraint.     Civilized  man  is  born,  lives,  and  dies 
in  a  state  of  slavery ;  at  his  birth,  he  is  sewn  up  in  swaddling 
clothes,  at  his  death,  he  is  nailed  in  a  coffin ;  so  long  as  he 
preserves  the  human  form  he  is  fettered  by  different  institu- 
tions." 

Education,  according  to  nature,  had  a  third  meaning  in  the 
Emile.  This  results,  when  the  author  elevates  his  chief  means, 
contact  with  the  phenomena  of  nature,  into  an  end  in  itself. 
The  mal-education  which  comes  from  man  is  to  be  counter- 
acted by  contact,  fearless  and  intimate,  with  subhuman  nature, 

—  with  animals,  with  plants,  with  physical  forces  of  all  kinds. 
Rousseau  was  a  "  lover  of  nature,"  and  through  his  teachings 
began  a  movement  of  finer  and  fuller  appreciation  of  nature, 
which  found  its  expression  in  a  wide  school  of  literature  both 
on  the  Continent  and  in  England.     Rousseau's  conception, 
however,  based  upon  a  wholly  misanthropic  view  of  the  life 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education          557 

of  man  in  society,  was  not  quite  so  genial,  since  it  led  to  com 
plete  isolation  from  society  and  to  the  preference  for  the  life 
of  the  recluse.  Both  morally  and  physically  he  held  that 
"  Cities  are  the  graves  of  the  human  species." 

When  applied  to  education  this  threefold  view  concerning 
the  "  doctrine  of  the  natural  state  "  resulted  in  a  number  of 
corollaries  which  were  revolutionary. 

Negative  Education. — The  prevailing  conception  of  human 
nature  and  especially  of  child  nature,  reenforced  by  both 
educational  and  religious  teachings,  was  diametrically  opposed 
to  that  of  Rousseau.  Human  nature  was  considered  essen- 
tially bad ;  the  purpose  of  religious  training  as  well  as  of  edu- 
cation in  general  was  to  eradicate  the  original  nature  and  to 
replace  it  by  one  shaped  under  man's  direction.  Rousseau 
opposed  this  idea  with  the  following  principle :  "  The  first 
education  then  should  be  purely  negative.  It  consists,  not 
in  teaching  the  principles  of  virtue  or  truth,  but  in  guarding 
the  heart  against  vice  and  the  mind  against  error." 

With  him  the  entire  education  of  the  child  was  to  come 
from  the  free  development  of  his  >wn  nature,  his  own 
powers,  his  own  natural  inclinations.  His  will  was  not  to  be 
thwarted. 

"  Experience  or  want  of  power  ought  alone  to  supply  the 
place  of  law  in  regard  to  your  pupil.  Never  let  him  have 
anything  because  he  demands  it,  but  because  he  needs  it. 
Let  him  not  know  what  obedience  is  when  he  acts  ;  nor  what 
authority  is  when  others  act  for  him.  Let  him  be  sensible  of 
his  liberty,  alike  in  his  own  action  and  in  yours.  Is  it  not 
very  extraordinary  that  the  persons  concerned  in  the  educa- 
tion of  children  should  never  have  devised  any  other  instru- 
ments for  managing  them  but  jealousy,  envy,  vanity, 
greediness,  and  fear,  passions  all  of  a  most  dangerous  tend 
ency,  the  quickest  to  ferment  and  the  most  proper  for 
corrupting  the  soul,  even  before  the  body  is  formed  ?  At 
every  crude  lesson  which  you  want  to  drive  into  their  heads, 
you  plant  a  vice  in  the  depths  of  their  heart.  Some  foolish 
teachers  think  it  a  great  thing,  that,  to  the  end  that  they  maj 


558  History  of  Education 

learn  the  nature  of  virtue,  they  thus  should  become  vicious, 
and  then  they  tell  us,  with  grave  countenance,  that  his  nature 
is  such.  Yes,  truly,  as  it  was  spoiled  by  you.  All  instruments 
have  been  tried  but  one,  the  only  one  which  can  succeed,  — 
well-regulated  liberty." 

By  this  negative  education,  expounded  in  most  startling 
paradoxes,  Rousseau  did  not  maintain  that  there  should  be  no 
education  at  all ;  but  that  there  should  be  one  very  differ- 
ent in  kind  from  the  accepted  educational  practices. 
In  one  of  his  letters  in  defense  of  the  Emile  against  the  many 
attacks  made  upon  it,  the  author  wrote  :  "  I  call  a  positive 
education  one  that  tends  to  form  the  mind  prematurely,  and 
to  instruct  the  child  in  the  duties  that  belong  to  a  man.  I 
call  a  negative  education  one  that  tends  to  perfect  the  organs 
that  are  the  instruments  of  knowledge  before  giving  this 
knowledge  directly ;  and  that  endeavors  to  prepare  the  way 
for  reason  by  the  proper  exercise  of  the  senses.  A  negative 
education  does  not  mean  a  time  of  idleness ;  far  from  it.  It 
does  not  give  virtue,  it  protects  from  vice;  it  does  not  in- 
culcate truth,  it  protects  from  error.  It  disposes  the  child 
to  take  the  path  that  will  lead  him  to  truth,  when  he  has 
reached  the  age  to  understand  it ;  and  to  goodness,  when  he 
has  acquired  the  faculty  of  recognizing  and  loving  it." 

Interpretation  of  Negative  Education.  —  This  doctrine  ap- 
plied to  physical  education  demanded  the  greatest  freedom 
for  the  child,  commended  the  most  simple  diet  and  clothing, 
condemned  all  medical  treatment,  and  insisted  upon  a  life  in 
the  country  and  in  the  open  air.  When  applied  to  the  intel- 
lectual training  of  the  child  it  taught  that  little  attention 
should  be  given  to  the  child's  intellectual  training  until  after 
the  age  of  twelve.  "  Childhood  is  the  sleep  of  reason." 
Therefore  the  child  should  not  be  presumed  to  reason  —  even 
to  read  or  work  during  this  period.  In  its  moral  application 
this  doctrine  of  negative  education  led  to  the  formation  of  an 
hypothesis  that  since  has  had  much  influence  and  some  able 


Naturalistic  Tendency  in  Education         559 

interpreters,  notably  Herbert  Spencer.  This  is  the  doctrine 
of  moral  training  by  natural  consequences  :  allow  the  child 
to  suffer  the  natural  results  of  his  own  acts  without  the  inter- 
vention of  human  beings  to  protect  or  to  punish.  As 
interpreted  by  Rousseau  this  meant,  further,  that  the  edu- 
cator might  correct  the  child  so  long  as  he  could  make  it 
appear  to  the  child  that  the  punishment  came  through  natural 
consequences  and  that  human  interference  had  nothing  to  do 
with  it.  If  the  child  is  slow  in  dressing  for  a  walk,  leave  him 
at  home  ;  if  he  breaks  a  window,  let  him  sit  in  the  cold ;  if  he 
disobeys  and  gets  wet,  let  him  have  a  cold  and  be  compelled 
to  remain  indoors ;  if  he  overeats,  let  him  be  sick ;  if  he  is 
irdolent  and  will  not  perform  tasks  assigned,  let  him  go  with- 
out food  that  would  come  as  a  result.  In  fact,  let  him  suffer 
the  natural  results  of  the  contravention  of  any  laws  of  nature 
or  of  his  own  being ;  so  far  as  concerns  opposition  from  indi- 
viduals, he  should  be  opposed  by  no  will  of  man,  by  no  human 
authority. 

While  this  doctrine  has  some  obvious  advantages  and  con- 
tains much  truth,  there  are  limitations  upon  its  applicability 
that  render  it  entirely  unsatisfactory  as  a  sole  guide.  While 
there  is  no  room  for  discussion,  a  few  of  these  may  at  least 
be  mentioned.  The  value  of  such  a  principle  depends  alto- 
gether upon  the  pupil's  connecting  cause  and  effect ;  but 
Rousseau  has  already  taught  that,  during  the  period  wherein 
this  doctrine  is  to  be  most  thoroughly  applied,  the  child  does 
not  reason.  Therefore  he  would  be  unable,  at  all,  to  receive 
any  moral  instruction  from  such  a  procedure. 

Aside  from  this  reaction  upon  one's  self,  it  is  a  large 
question  whether  the  effects  upon  one's  own  physical 
being  or  individual  welfare  are  the  only  ones  to  be  con- 
sidered. The  results  upon  the  feelings  and  the  welfare  of 
others  are  to  be  considered  and  cannot  be  left  for  develop- 
ment merely  to  natural  love  of  goodness.  Further,  if  all 
authority  is  to  be  thrown  aside,  is  there  no  profit  in  the 


560  History  of  Education 

experience  of  others  ?  Rousseau  thought,  as  that  experience 
was  embodied  in  literature,  history,  customs,  institutions, 
there  was  little.  To  those  who  deny  all  legitimacy  to  author- 
ity, there  is  no  answer  to  be  made,  for  the  individualism  of 
Rousseau  is  sufficient ;  but  in  this  position  Rousseau  himself 
was  far  from  consistent. 

Further,  such  a  training  would  lead  to  the  judgment  of 
all  acts  from  consequences  rather  than  from  motives,  and  to 
the  development  of  prudence  rather  than  of  morality.  Even 
granting  that  this  were  not  true,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 
such  an  education  would  ever  develop  positive  moral  charac- 
ter. Positive  virtues  could  hardly  be  produced  through  the 
avoidance  of  non-pleasurable  results  to  one's  self  alone, 
especially  when  the  unreflective  character  of  childhood  is 
taken  into  consideration. 

The  practical  objection  that  this  method  of  training  would 
lead  to  irreparable  injury  before  the  child  could  be  educated 
need  not  be  considered. 

While  these  general  principles  of  negative  education  under- 
lie all  education,  Rousseau  held  that  each  phase  of  education, 
physical,  intellectual,  and  moral,  had  an  appropriate  stage. 
The  old  attitude  toward  education  —  that  it  was  a  procedure 
uniform  in  character  throughout  and  that  the  child  was  to  be 
treated  and  the  child  mind  to  be  trained  just  as  the  adult 
would  be  —  Rousseau  rejected ;  but  he  went  to  the  other 
extreme  and  held  that  development  of  the  child  was  through 
sharply  defined  periods  which  had  little  or  no  connection 
with  each  other  and  that  each  of  these  periods  possessed  an 
education  of  its  own. 

Education  from  One  to  Five.  —  Devoted  largely  to  the 
statement  of  general  principles,  previously  summarized,  this 
first  book  of  the  Entile,  treating  of  the  education  of  the  child 
from  one  to  five,  adds  little  of  the  concrete.  The  father  is  the 
natural  teacher,  as  the  mother  is  the  natural  nurse.  By  these 
two  is  to  be  given  the  early  training,  for  the  most  part  physi- 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         561 

cal.  The  substance  of  the  education  of  this  first  period  is 
the  opposition  to  the  customary  restrictions  of  swaddling 
clothes,  of  restraints  on  freedom,  and  of  indoor  life ;  oppo> 
sition  to  the  thwarting  of  natural  inclinations  and  desires, 
and  of  punishment  for  acts  before  the  child  can  have  any 
conception  of  wrong  or  of  why  punishment  is  given.  It 
includes  extravagant  praise  of  life  in  the  country,  of  freedom, 
of  sports  and  games,  and  of  exercise.  "The  weaker  the 
body,  the  more  it  commands ;  the  stronger  it  is,  the  better  it 
obeys.  All  the  sensual  passions  find  lodgment  in  effeminate 
bodies."  "  All  wickedness  comes  from  weakness.  A  child 
is  bad  only  because  he  is  weak ;  make  him  strong  and  he  will 
be  good.  He  who  can  do  everything  does  nothing  bad." 
These  are  the  principles,  however  defective,  that  underlie  all 
this  earlier  training.  Little  attention  is  to  be  paid  to  his  in- 
tellectual and  moral  development.  Effort  should  be  made, 
even,  to  restrict  his  vocabulary.  "  It  is  a  great  disadvantage 
for  him  to  have  more  words  than  ideas,  and  to  know  how  to 
say  more  things  than  he  can  think." 

Education  from  Five  to  Twelve.  —  This,  "  the  most  critical 
period  of  human  life,"  is  to  be  controlled  by  the  two  prin- 
ciples already  elaborated,  that  education  should  be  negative 
and  that  moral  training  should  be  by  natural  consequences. 
It  is  in  his  description  of  the  proper  education  of  the  child 
during  this  period  that  Rousseau  manifests  most  clearly  his 
hostility  to  the  type  of  education  then  prevalent.  Instead  of 
attempting,  as  is  ordinarily  done,  to  give  the  child  all  sorts 
of  ideas,  nothing  at  all  should  be  done  toward  molding  or 
forcing  his  mind.  Childhood  is  for  its  own  sake.  "  Nature 
desires  that  children  should  be  children  before  they  are 
men."  The  child  need  not  be  taught  to  read,  though  prob- 
ably he  will  pick  this  up  on  his  own  accord.  He  will  hardly 
know  what  a  book  is.  "  Exercise  the  body,  the  organs,  the 
senses  and  powers,  but  keep  the  soul  lying  fallow  as  long  as 
you  can,"  is  his  advice.  While  the  child  knows  nothing  of 
20 


562  History  of  Education 

books  and  of  that  which  passes  for  knowledge,  "  on  the  othei 
hand  he  judges,  foresees,  reasons  on  everything  which  is 
directly  related  to  him  ; "  for  this  education  is  to  be  largely 
a  training  of  the  senses,  such  as  can  be  gained  by  constant 
life  with  the  forces  and  phenomena  of  nature.  He  measures, 
weighs,  counts,  compares,  draws  conclusions,  tests  inferences, 
discovers  principles. 

Education  from  Twelve  to  Fifteen.  —  This  is  the  one  period 
in  life  in  which  the  strength  of  the  individual  is  greater  than 
his  needs.  As  intellectual  training  has  for  its  general  result 
the  multiplication  of  wants  without  any  corresponding  devel- 
opment of  power  adequate  to  meet  those  needs,  this  is  the 
one  period  in  life  in  which  greatest  stress  can  be  laid  upon 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  What  will  the  child  do  with 
this  surplus  of  power  and  energy  ? 

"  He  will  endeavor  to  employ  it  in  tasks  which  may  profit 
him  when  the  occasion  comes ;  he  will  project  into  the  future, 
so  to  speak,  that  which  is  superfluous  for  the  time  being.  The 
robust  child  will  make  provisions  for  the  feeble  man  ;  but  he 
will  place  these  stores  neither  in  coffers  which  can  be  stolen 
from  him,  nor  in  barns  which  are  not  his  own.  In  order  that 
he  may  really  appropriate  his  acquisitions  to  himself,  it  is  in 
his  arms,  in  his  head,  and  in  himself,  that  he  will  lodge  them. 
This,  then,  is  the  period  of  labor,  of  instruction,  and  of  study  ; 
and  observe,  it  is  not  I  who  have  arbitrarily  made  this  choice, 
but  it  is  nature  herself  who  indicates  it." 

But,  after  all,  there  are  comparatively  few  things  to  be 
known  that  are  of  value.  Curiosity  —  that  ardor  for  knowl- 
edge which  comes  from  natural  desires,  the  innate  desire  for 
well  being,  not  the  ardor  for  knowledge  that  is  founded  on 
the  desire  to  be  considered  wise  —  is  the  sole  motive  and  the 
sole  guide.  The  test  of  all  is  its  practical  use.  "  Let  us  then 
reject  from  our  primary  studies  those  branches  of  knowledge 
for  which  man  has  not  a  natural  taste,  and  let  us  limit  our- 
selves to  those  which  instinct  leads  us  to  pursue,"  is  his  state- 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         563 

ment  of  a  principle  far  more  widely  accepted  in  this  day  than 
in  his  own.  There  is  little  of  "  book  knowledge  "  even  in  this 
period.  Robinson  Crusoe,  a  study  of  "  life  according  to  nature," 
of  self-help,  of  the  uselessness  of  most  knowledge  and  of  all  so- 
cial forms,  is  the  chief  book  recommended.  Knowledge  is  to 
be  clearly  distinguished  from  truth  and  the  useful  from  both. 

"  Since  all  our  errors  come  from  our  judgment,  it  is  clear 
that  if  we  never  needed  to  judge  we  should  have  no  need  to 
learn  ;  we  should  never  be  in  a  situation  to  deceive  ourselves ; 
we  should  be  happier  in  our  ignorance  than  we  could  be  with 
our  knowledge.  Who  denies  that  scholars  know  a  thousand 
true  things  which  the  ignorant  will  never  know  ?  Are  scholars 
nearer  the  truth  on  this  account  ?  Quite  the  contrary  :  they 
depart  from  truth  as  they  advance ;  because  the  vanity  of  judg- 
ing, ever  making  greater  progress  than  knowledge,  each  truth 
which  they  learn  brings  with  it  a  hundred  false  judgments. 
It  is  absolutely  certain  that  the  learned  societies  of  Europe 
are  but  so  many  public  schools  of  falsehood ;  and  very  surely 
there  are  more  errors  in  the  Academy  of  Sciences  than  in  the 
whole  tribe  of  Hurons." 

Among  other  things,  Emile  has  learned  a  trade,  "  less  for 
the  sake  of  knowing  the  trade  than  for  overcoming  the  preju- 
dices which  despise  it."  In  his  long  discussions  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  manual  and  industrial  activities  in  education, 
Rousseau  emphasizes  many  of  the  social  advantages,  without 
comprehending  at  all  the  psychological  advantages  that  are  so 
emphasized  at  present.  At  the  end  of  this  period  "  Emile  is 
industrious,  temperate,  patient,  firm,  and  full  of  courage.  .  .  . 
He  has  little  knowledge,  but  what  he  has  is  really  his  own ; 
he  knows  nothing  by  halves.  .  .  .  Do  you  think  that  a  child 
who  has  thus  reached  his  fifteenth  year  has  lost  the  years 
preceding  ? " 

Education  from  Fifteen  to  Twenty.  —  Hitherto  Emile's  body, 
senses,  and  brain  have  been  formed ;  it  is  now  time  that  his 
heart  should  be  shaped.  Hitherto  the  child  has  been  educated 
solely  for  himself  and  by  himself;  self-love  has  been  the  con- 


564  History  of  Education 

trolling  motive ;  self-perfection,  self -development,  the  ultimate 
end.  Now  the  youth  is  to  be  educated  for  life  with  others 
and  is  to  be  educated  in  social  relationships.  Love  for  others 
becomes  the  controlling  motive ;  emotional  development,  moral 
perfection  the  goal. 

Rousseau  first  called  attention  to  the  transcendent  impor- 
tance of  the  period  of  adolescence  in  education.  "At  this 
stage  the  ordinary  course  of  education  ends;  but  strictly 
speaking  here  one's  should  begin."  Up  to  this  time  Emile 
has  not  been  brought,  save  indirectly,  into  contact  with 
others ;  he  has  not  had  to  adapt  himself  to  the  conduct 
and  interests  of  others ;  he  has  known  no  motives  save 
those  of  self-interest  and  curiosity.  He  has  probably  never 
even  heard  the  name  of  God.  Now  his  education  is  to  be 
strictly  moral  and  religious.  Previous  attachments  for  per- 
sons have  been  merely  the  result  of  habitual  association  ;  now 
they  are  based  on  unity  in  sympathy  and  upon  emotional 
experience.  The  whole  character  of  his  education  changes. 
"  The  study  proper  for  man  is  that  of  his  relations.  While 
he  knows  only  his  physical  existence,  he  should  solely  study 
his  relations  to  things ;  this  is  the  employment  of  his  child- 
hood. When  he  begins  to  feel  his  moral  existence,  he  ought 
then  to  inquire  after  his  relations  to  mankind ;  for  this  is  the 
proper  occupation  of  his  whole  life,  beginning  from  the  period 
which  we  have  now  reached." 

Self-love,  in  which  are  latent  both  good  and  evil,  is  now  to 
be  turned  irrevocably  toward  the  good.  The  basis  of  all  this 
is  the  emotional  life.  "  From  the  first  movements  of  the 
heart,  arise  the  first  utterances  of  the  conscience ;  and,  from 
the  first  feelings  of  love  and  hate,  spring  the  first  notions  of 
good  and  evil."  As  this  training  was  to  be  secured  in  the 
earlier  period  by  the  preservation  of  his  native  modesty 
through  the  negative  training,  so  now,  not  through  precept, 
but  through  contact  with  men,  through  the  example  of  his 
tutor,  through  the  study  of  history,  is  this  development  to 


Naturalistic  Tendency  in  Education  565 

oe  secured.  "  I  do  not  grow  weary  of  repeating  that  all  the 
lessons  of  young  men  should  be  given  in  action  rather  than 
in  words.  Let  them  learn  nothing  in  books  that  can  be 
taught  them  by  experience."  And  yet  Rousseau  was  far 
from  preaching  the  dangerous  doctrine  that  one  should  learn 
to  avoid  evil  through  experience  of  its  consequences.  "  There 
is  no  ethical  knowledge  which  cannot  be  acquired  through 
the  experience  of  others  or  through  one's  own.  In  case  the 
experience  is  dangerous,  instead  of  making  it  ourselves,  we 
draw  the  lesson  from  history.  When  the  trial  is  without  con- 
sequences, it  is  well  for  the  young  man  to  remain  exposed 
to  it."  Thus,  Emile  is  taught  not  only  to  shun  evil,  but  to 
do  good.  Especially  the  poor  and  the  oppressed  call  for  his 
sympathy  and  his  assistance.  While  he  is  firm  in  the  asser- 
tion of  his  own  rights,  and  is  quick  to  the  defense  and  pro- 
tection of  others,  he  is  an  exponent  of  the  virtues  of  peace. 
"  The  spirit  of  peace  is  the  effect  of  his  education." 

In  a  similar  way  he  receives  his  religious  education.  "  At 
the  age  of  fifteen,  he  did  not  know  that  he  had  a  soul,  and 
perhaps  at  eighteen  it  is  not  yet  time  for  him  to  be  informed 
of  it ;  for  if  he  learns  it  too  soon,  he  runs  the  risk  of  never 
knowing  it."  This  last  clause  contains  the  underlying  prin- 
ciple of  his  teaching  concerning  religious  education.  Other 
wise,  the  religious  ideas  the  child  gets  are  mere  forms,  verbal 
imitations,  worthless  so  far  as  real  experience  is  concerned. 
Rousseau's  development  of  the  idea  of  a  natural  religion  — 
the  confession  of  the  Savoyard  Vicar  —  occupies  a  large  por- 
tion of  his  work.  While  this  is  the  portion  of  the  treatise 
that  caused  the  book  to  be  burned  by  public  executioner  and 
the  author  to  be  expelled  from  Paris,  we  can  devote  no  atten- 
tion to  it  here,  since  it  is  aside  from  our  main  interest. 

The  Education  of  Women  is  treated  in  the  fifth  and  last 
book.  Though  a  prolonged  treatise,  it  is  of  but  little  inter- 
est here,  since  it  does  not  elucidate  at  all  Rousseau's  main 
principle  In  fact,  since  Sophia's  entire  education  is  to  be 


566  History  of  Education 

determined  by  her  future  career  as  the  life  companion  01 
Emile,  Rousseau  violates  his  fundamental  idea,  that  each 
individual  is  to  be  educated  for  himself  and  guided  by  the 
needs  and  rights  of  his  own  personality.  The  animus  of  the 
entire  argument  is  clearly  revealed  in  this  one  sentence  of 
condemnation  of  the  prevailing  literary  education :  "  A  woman 
of  culture  is  the  plague  of  her  husband,  her  children,  her 
family,  her  servants,  —  everybody." 

SOME  PERMANENT  RESULTS  OF  ROUSSEAU'S  IN- 
FLUENCE. The  Education  of  Natural  Interests  vs.  the  Educa- 
tion of  Artificial  Effort.  —  That  education  is  a  natural,  not  an 
artificial  process ;  that  it  is  a  development  from  within,  not  an 
accretion  from  without ;  that  it  comes  through  the  workings 
of  natural  instincts  and  interests  and  not  through  response 
to  external  force ;  that  it  is  an  expansion  of  natural  powers, 
not  an  acquisition  of  information  ;  that  it  is  life  itself,  not  a 
preparation  for  a  future  state  remote  in  interests  and  charac- 
teristics from  the  life  of  childhood,  —  these  ideas  constitute 
the  fundamental  teaching  of  Rousseau.  The  great  variety 
of  forms  which  these  ideas  have  been  given  during  the  nine- 
teenth century,  even  by  many  who  repudiate  the  doctrines 
and  influences  of  the  "  great  leveler,"  are,  after  all,  but  new 
versions  of  the  truth  originally  proclaimed  in  somewhat  exag- 
gerated form  by  Rousseau. 

The  old  conception  of  education  aimed  to  remake  the 
nature  of  the  child  by  forcing  upon  him  the  traditional  or 
customary  way  of  thinking,  of  doing,  and  even  of  emotional 
reaction ;  to  substitute  for  the  instinctive  or  "  natural "  reac- 
tion of  the  child  those  artificial  reactions  developed  through 
many  generations  of  religious,  intellectual,  and  social  formal- 
ism. Human  affections  were  evil,  and  hence  the  heart  was 
to  be  separated  from  the  objects  of  natural  desire.  Human 
senses  were  untrustworthy,  and  hence  could  not  be  made 
the  basis  of  knowledge  or  of  instruction.  Human  inclinations 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education          567 

and  instincts,  springing  from  a  nature  depraved  in  its  es- 
sence, were  toward  the  evil  and  were  to  be  eradicated. 
Natural  interests,  as  expressions  of  the  nature  which  both 
education  and  religion  sought  to  repress  and  make  over, 
were  to  be  shunned  in  all  educational  processes.  To  the 
extent  that  an  activity  or  task  was  difficult  to  perform  intel- 
lectually and  was  distasteful  emotionally,  to  this  extent  it 
possessed  educational  value.  The  first  step  in  the  moral 
education  was  to  "break  the  will  of  the  child,"  which  in  its 
perverseness  but  represented  the  evil  of  human  nature. 
This  was  to  be  followed  in  his  social  and  moral  education 
by  the  constant  effort  to  mold  the  child  into  the  artificial 
forms  of  conduct,  wherein  a  real  and  natural  motive  was  hid- 
den in  formal  behavior  satisfactory  to  the  judgment  of  the 
adult,  even  though  it  might  conceal  a  motive  contradictory 
to  the  external  expression. 

Religious,  philosophical,  psychological,  social,  educational 
beliefs  and  practices,  coincided  in  this  attitude  toward  the 
child. 

Not  only  did  the  religious  and  philosophical  view  reject 
an  education  founded  on  the  training  of  the  senses,  the  use 
of  the  imagination  and  the  guidance  of  natural  interests  and 
instincts,  but,  as  has  been  seen  in  the  previous  chapter,  the 
dominant  psychological  views  implied  the  same  attitude. 
The  mind  as  a  bundle  of  faculties  was  to  be  developed  by 
exercising  these  various  powers  upon  appropriate  tasks 
whose  value  consisted  in  the  difficulties  they  offered.  These 
faculties  were  considered  to  have  no  necessary  connection 
with  one  another,  hence  these  disciplines  were  separate  and 
distinct  things ;  though  some  faculties  were  higher  than 
others.  The  highest  was  the  reasoning  power  to  be  devel- 
oped by  appropriate  discipline  in  mathematics,  logical  dispu- 
tations, and  the  languages ;  but  the  faculty  upon  which  all 
the  others  depended,  and  upon  the  successful  development 
of  which  depended  the  success  of  the  education,  was  the 


568  History  of  Education 

memory.  Discipline  of  the  memory  then  took  precedence 
above  all  other  exercises.  The  best  training  for  the  memory 
was  afforded  by  the  mastery  of  material  which  had  no  inher- 
ent interest  for  the  child. 

The  social  ideals  of  the  time  favored  this  same  view.  The 
child  was  considered  but  a  miniature  adult  —  of  no  value 
and  of  no  rights  until  he  could  mimic  the  way  of  the  adult. 
In  this  most  artificial  of  all  ages,  in  dress,  in  manners,  in 
deportment,  in  pleasures,  the  child  was  molded  on  the  pat- 
tern of  his  seniors,  with  the  results  that  child  life  was  almost 
eliminated  from  the  upper  classes.  Previous  to  the  Rousseau 
period,  the  child  as  he  appeared  in  literature  was  merely  the 
adult  viewed  through  the  wrong  end  of  the  telescope.  He 
spoke  as  an  adult,  thought  as  an  adult,  acted  as  an  adult. 
Educationally  he  studied  the  same  subjects  as  the  adult, — 
preeminently  the  languages ;  approached  them  from  the 
same  logical  point  of  view,  through  formal  grammar;  mas- 
tered them  through  sheer  effort  of  memory ;  made  the  same 
formal  use  of  them,  in  the  same  artificially  organized  life. 

All  the  subsidiary  precepts  of  Rousseau  were  but  concrete 
applications  of  his  one  general  protest  against  this  entire 
conception  of  education.  "  Take  the  reverse  of  the  accepted 
practice,  and  you  will  almost  always  do  right,"  he  advised. 
Hence  he  reiterated  in  a  variety  of  forms  the  thought  that, 
"  Whatever  may  happen,  abandon  everything  rather  than 
have  his  [the  child's]  tasks  become  irksome ;  for  how  much 
he  learns  is  of  no  account,  but  only  that  he  does  nothing 
against  his  will." 

Thus  in  Rousseau  is  found  the  negation  of  the  conception 
of  education  of  the  Renaissance  and  of  all  of  its  subsequent 
development.  All  of  these  had  considered  education  to  be 
the  making  over  of  the  child  in  the  hand  of  man  through  the 
use  of  literature,  religion  and  similar  means,  into  a  being 
different  from  the  natural  being,  into  one  possessing  knowl- 
edge valued  by  his  fellows,  ways  of  acting  approved  through 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         569 

social  institutions,  ways  of  reacting  emotionally  approved  by 
the  current  religion  and  morality.  To  such  an  artificial  pro- 
duct, Rousseau  opposed  the  human  being  educated  through 
contact  with  nature,  guided  by  his  own  natural  interests  and 
determined  by  his  own  inherent  capacities  and  tendencies. 
In  all  the  preceding  period  the  educated  man  was  the  learned 
man,  the  man  possessed  of  social  culture ;  to  Rousseau  the 
educated  man  was  the  well-developed  man. 

The  dominant  views  considered  the  value  of  any  particular 
training  to  lie  in  the  effort  necessary  to  overcome  difficulties. 
Rousseau  conceived  it  to  be  in  the  interest  stimulated  in  the 
child.  This  conflict  between  the  education  of  effort  and  the 
education  of  interest  instituted  by  Rousseau  continues  until 
the  present  time.  The  conflict  between  the  elective  and  the 
prescribed  course  in  college,  between  the  disciplinary  studies 
and  the  interest  or  content  studies  in  the  elementary  grades, 
are  aspects  of  the  same  struggle.  The  reconciliation  in 
theory  and  the  embodiment  in  practice  are  the  tasks  of  the 
present. 

The  fundamental  truth  of  the  position  that  he  emphasized, 
and  that  subsequent  experience  has  striven  to  realize 
in  practice,  is  that  all  educative  efforts  must  start  from 
the  instinctive  tendencies.  The  effort  to  thwart  them,  to 
stifle  them,  to  eradicate  them  instead  of  to  modify  or  reorgan- 
ize them  is  the  great  error  of  educators.  The  reaction  of 
the  child  against  unnatural  treatment  often  results  in  produc- 
ing a  type  of  character  and  a  disposition  which  is  then  often 
considered  inherently  evil.  "Their  first  language,  you  say, 
is  a  tear.  I  can  well  believe  it.  From  the  moment  of  their 
birth,  you  cross  their  desires  ;  the  first  gifts  they  receive  from 
you  are  chains;  the  first  attentions  they  experience  are 
torments." 

The  Conception  of  Education  as  a  Process  —  as  the  process 
of  living  —  follows  as  a  corollary  from  the  preceding.  Being 
a  process  it  lasts  throughout  life,  or  at  least  from  birth  to  adult 


570  History  of  Education 

life,  and  finds  its  meaning  for  any  particular  stage,  not  in  a 
future  state,  but  in  the  process  itself :  — 

"  What  must  we  think,"  he  asks,  "  of  that  barbarous  educa- 
tion, which  sacrifices  the  present  to  the  uncertain  future, 
which  loads  a  child  with  chains  of  every  sort,  and  begins  by 
making  him  miserable  in  order  to  prepare  for  him,  long  in 
advance,  some  pretended  happiness  which  it  is  probable  he 
will  never  enjoy  ?  Were  I  even  to  assume  that  education  to 
be  reasonable  in  its  object,  how  could  we  witness,  without 
indignation,  these  poor  unfortunates,  subject,  like  galley 
slaves,  to  never-ending  toil,  without  any  assurance  that  such 
sacrifice  will  ever  be  useful  to  them  ?  The  age  of  mirth  is 
passed  in  the  midst  of  tears,  chastisements,  threats,  and 
slavery." 

Education  is  no  longer  a  procedure,  —  artificial,  harsh, 
unsympathetic,  repressive  of  all  natural  inclinations,  —  by 
which  the  child  as  a  little  man  is  made  into  a  big  man  through 
the  hands  of  the  teacher.  But,  through  allowing  natural  forces 
to  have  their  way,  it  is  the  process  of  development  into  an 
enjoyable,  rational,  harmoniously  balanced,  useful,  and  hence 
natural  life.  The  end  is  reached,  not  with  adult  life,  but  with 
each  succeeding  day  whenever  life  has  its  natural  activities, 
its  appropriate  duties,  and  its  corresponding  satisfactions. 
Later  Rousseau  says :  "  A  child  knows  that  he  is  to  become 
a  man,  and  all  the  ideas  which  he  can  have  of  man's  estate 
are  occasions  of  instruction  to  him ;  but  of  the  ideas  of  that 
state  which  are  not  within  his  comprehension,  he  ought  to 
remain  in  absolute  ignorance.  My  whole  book  is  but  a  con- 
tinual proof  of  this  principle  of  education." 

A  Simplification  of  the  Educational  Process  follows.  If 
education  as  an  artificial  procedure,  as  a  making  over  of  the 
child  at  the  hands  of  man  on  the  model  conventionalized  by 
society,  is  done  away  with,  the  highly  elaborated  artificial 
methods  of  instruction  have  no  further  use. 

"  Let  us  transform  our  sensations  into  ideas,  but  let  us  not 
jump  abruptly  from  sensible  objects  to  intellectual  objects ; 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education          571 

for  it  is  through  the  first  that  we  are  to  reach  the  second.  In 
the  first  movement  of  the  mind,  let  the  senses  always  be  the 
guides ;  let  there  be  no  books  but  the  world  and  no  other 
instruction  than  facts.  The  child  who  reads  does  not  think, 
—  he  merely  reads ;  he  is  not  receiving  instruction  but 
learning  words." 

The  latter  criticism  is  as  pertinent  in  regard  to  much  of 
school  work  now  as  in  the  days  of  Rousseau.  Geography  is 
to  be  learned  in  the  woods,  fields,  and  hills,  by  the  observa- 
tion of  the  position  of  the  sun  and  the  earth,  by  the  study  of 
the  stream,  the  rain,  and  the  changes  of  temperature; 
astronomy  by  the  study  of  the  heavenly  bodies ;  botany  by 
the  study  of  plants ;  the  necessary  facts  and  fundamental 
principles  of  physics  and  chemistry  by  observation  and  ex- 
perimentation ;  mathematics  as  it  is  needed  in  these  other 
activities  and  in  economic  relations  ;  history  only  through 
reading.  Geography,  history,  and  all  subjects  are  to  begin 
at  home;  only  that  which  can  be  thoroughly  comprehended 
should  be  attempted,  and  only  that  which  is  mastered  should 
be  passed  over.  "  In  general,  never  substitute  the  sign  for 
the  thing  itself,  save  when  it  is  impossible  to  show  the  thing ; 
for  the  sign  absorbs  the  attention  of  the  child  and  makes 
him  forget  the  thing  represented."  Most  widely  heralded 
educational  discoveries  or  reforms  of  the  present  are  but 
restatements  or  other  attempts  at  realizing  these  principles 
formulated  by  Rousseau. 

The  Child  the  Positive  Factor  in  Education. — To  John  Locke 
belongs  the  honor  of  writing  the  first  book  on  education  that 
deals  primarily  with  the  child ;  but  to  Rousseau  belongs  the 
honor  of  deriving  his  educational  theories  from  the  nature 
of  the  child.  It  may  be  admitted  that  Rousseau  had  little 
actual  knowledge  of  child  life  and  child  nature  and  that  his 
sympathy  for  children  was  pure  sentimentalism,  which  was 
never  converted  into  actual  practice ;  but  it  is  nevertheless 
true  that  here  first  education  finds  its  purpose,  its  process, 


572  History  of  Education 

and  its  means  wholly  within  the  child  life  and  the  child  ex- 
perience. An  appropriate  development  of  childhood  is  the 
purpose  of  each  particular  stage  of  education;  the  child's 
nature  and  the  child's  growth  are  to  determine  the  process ; 
the  child's  experience  is  to  furnish  the  means.  All  of  the 
pregnant  reforms  of  Pestalozzi,  of  Herbart,  of  Froebel,  and 
of  the  multitude  of  other  reformers  of  lesser  influence  thus 
find  their  origin  in  the  teachings  of  Rousseau. 

In  a  similar  way  sympathy  with  childhood  is  emphasized 
as  the  qualification  for  all  educational  work.  "O  men,  be 
humane ;  it  is  your  foremost  duty.  .  .  .  Love  childhood ; 
encourage  its  sports,  its  pleasures,  its  amiable  instincts,"  ex- 
claims the  man  who  forgot  much  of  his  own  precepts  in  his 
own  practice.  Made  theory  by  Rousseau,  made  practice  by 
Pestalozzi,  sympathy  with  the  child,  intellectually,  morally, 
personally,  has  come  to  be  recognized  as  an  essential  in  the 
educative  process. 

The  Foundation  of  the  Nineteenth-Century  Educational 
Development.  —  Finally,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  in  Rousseau's 
teachings,  notwithstanding  their  extravagance,  is  to  be  found 
the  truth  upon  which  all  educational  development  of  the 
nineteenth  century  is  based.  Rousseau  was  the  prophet  de- 
nouncing the  evil  of  the  old ;  foretelling,  yet  seeing  vaguely 
and  in  distorted  outline,  the  vision  of  the  new.  He  became 
the  inspiration  of  those  educational  reformers  who  reduced 
his  vagaries  to  practicable  procedure.  He  was  the  forerunner 
of  many  who,  all  unconscious  of  their  indebtedness  to  the 
despised  revolutionist,  have  followed  in  the  trails  he  blazed 
through  the  forest,  until  now  they  have  become  the  broad 
highway  of  common  travel.  The  three  interpretations  which 
Rousseau  gave  to  his  doctrine  of  nature  mark  out  the  lines 
of  educational  development  during  the  nineteenth  century. 

As  nature  to  Rousseau  meant  the  native  instincts,  ten- 
dencies, capacities  of  the  human  being  as  opposed  to  those 
acquired  through  association  with  his  fellows,  he  demanded 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         573 

an  education  which  was  the  unhampered  development  of 
these  native  powers  or  capacities.  Hence  the  conscious 
process  of  instruction  must  be  based  upon  a  study  of  this 
native  equipment,  these  natural  instincts  and  interests,  and 
the  resulting  activities.  There  grew  out  from  this,  especially 
in  connection  with  the  work  of  Pestalozzi,  Herbart,  and 
Froebel,  the  most  important  and  most  fruitful  development 
in  the  whole  history  of  education.  The  fundamental  idea  of 
this  tendency  in  educational  thought  derived  from  Rousseau 
is  that  education  is  a  natural  process,  starting  from  natural 
instincts  and  tendencies  to  action,  guided  by  principles  de- 
rived from  the  study  of  the  child  mind  in  development  and 
the  adult  mind  in  its  functionings.  Thus  from  Rousseau 
comes  the  psychological  tendency  in  education. 

In  a  similar  way  Rousseau's  teaching  that  the  educational 
material  should  be  the  facts  and  phenomena  of  nature,  that 
it  should  consist  chiefly  in  an  inquiry  into  nature's  laws,  and 
should  be  through  an  intimate,  fearless,  and  constant  associa- 
tion with  nature  rather  than  man,  is  the  basis  for  the  scien- 
tific tendency  in  modern  education.  This  is  not  to  say  that 
Rousseau's  personal  or  literary  influence  is  responsible  for 
the  development  of  science  and  of  scientific  education  during 
the  nineteenth  century,  but  that  his  teachings  did  lay  an  edu- 
cational basis  for  this  tendency  and  did  exert  a  very  material 
influence  in  furthering  it. 

Finally,  in  Rousseau's  teaching  that  education  should  aim 
to  develop  the  virtues  of  the  primitive  man,  or  at  least  what 
he  considered  to  be  his  virtues,  that  it  should  prepare  the 
individual  to  live  in  a  society  wherein  each  should  contribute 
by  his  own  labor  to  his  own  support,  should  be  bound  by 
sympathy  to  all  his  fellow-men  and  by  benevolence  to  all  that 
needed  his  aid,  he  laid  the  foundation  for,  or  at  least  influ- 
enced the  development  of,  the  sociological  tendency  in  educa- 
tion. In  his  individualism  he  clearly  emphasized  the  idea  of 
a  social  education  of  a  new  type.  In  his  emphasis  on  the 


574  History  of  Education 

learning  of  a  trade  or  occupation  as  a  component  part  of  edu 
cation,  in  his  emphasis  on  certain  fundamental  social  virtues, 
in  his  rejection  of  the  formal  education  of  the  times  fostered 
by  and  fostering  in  turn  the  dominant  aristocratic  classes  of 
his  day,  in  his  emphasis  upon  the  emotional  and  moral  as 
opposed  to  the  intellectual  aspect  of  education,  he  introduced 
some  of  the  tendencies  that  have  come  to  be  incorporated, 
with  others  already  at  work  in  his  own  times,  into  the  socio- 
logical conception  of  education. 

This  threefold  influence  of  Rousseau  on  education  and  the 
actual  work  of  the  school  can  be  illustrated  by  the  parallel 
influence  which  he  exerted  upon  literature.  This  influence 
upon  literature  was  more  immediate  and  direct,  but  not  any 
more  real  or  profound  than  that  on  schools.  From  Rousseau 
came  the  great  movement  in  romanticism  of  the  later  eight- 
eenth and  early  nineteenth  century.  The  combination  of 
the  heroic  in  action,  the  dominance  of  the  passions,  the  glori- 
fication of  the  sentimental,  find  here  an  exposition  little  less 
extreme  than  the  more  brutal  and  more  frank  realism  of  the 
earlier  period.  Attention  is  turned  from  personal  adventures 
and  social  intrigues  to  the  analysis  of  passions  and  the 
descriptions  of  inner  conflicts.  The  romantic  movement  in 
literature  is  no  less  a  development  from  Rousseau  than  the 
psychological  movement  in  education. 

In  a  similar  way  Rousseau  first  made  the  element  of  the 
natural  environment  a  fundamental  element  in  the  story  of 
human  emotions.  With  him  began  the  tendency  to  incor- 
porate into  the  novel  the  detailed  pictures  of  natural  scenery 
that  should  form  an  appropriate  setting  for  the  drama  of 
human  life  wrought  out  on  the  stage  of  the  printed  page. 
The  feeling  for  the  beautiful  in  nature  found  in  him  one  of 
its  most  brilliant  and  most  devoted  exponents.  In  literature, 
he  was  the  first  to  revel  in  the  charm  of  the  country  and 
to  seek  to  analyze  the  influence  upon  character,  of  nature,  of 
the  mountains,  and  of  the  lakes.  Thus  his  influence  in  edu- 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         575 

cation  toward  the  use  of  natural  phenomena  as  the  subject- 
matter  and  the  close  contact  with  nature  rather  than  with 
books  as  the  method,  finds  a  further  parallel  in  his  literary 
influence. 

One  further  parallel  presents  itself.  Though  here  Rous- 
seau cannot  be  said  to  be  an  initiator,  but  rather  an  imitator 
of  the  prevailing  English  school,  he  transferred  the  interest 
in  literature  from  the  palace  to  the  hovel,  from  the  lord  and 
lady  to  the  commonplace  mortal.  Minute  descriptions  of 
the  life  of  the  common  people  and  of  life  in  the  country, 
more  typical  of  realism  than  of  romanticism,  crowd  his  one 
great  novel,  —  the  Nouvelle  HJloise,  —  as  well  as  his  Confes- 
sions. Bourgeois  morality  is  exalted ;  commonplace  people 
occupy  the  stage  hitherto  reserved  for  the  quality  ;  the  social 
problems  of  the  masses  permit  the  occasion  for  the  plot,  for 
description  and  for  moralizing.  What  might  be  termed  a 
sociological  tendency  in  literature,  corresponding  to  the  one 
in  education  and  illustrative  of  'one  great  aspect  of  Rousseau's 
"  doctrine  of  the  natural  state,"  here  receives  a  tremendous 
impetus. 

EFFECT  UPON  SCHOOLS.  —  When  inquiry  is  made  for 
the  influence  of  the  "  naturalistic  "  tendency  on  schools,  the 
answer  is  not  immediately  forthcoming.  So  profound  a 
movement  does  not  have  its  effect  immediately.  The  an- 
swer to  this  inquiry  is  secured  only  when  the  results  of 
these  later  tendencies,  especially  of  the  psychological,  are 
discovered.  Immediately  the  effects  were  slight ;  ultimately 
they  were  so  general  as  to  defy  measurement. 

In  France,  where  the  influence  of  Rousseau  on  thought  and 
sentiment  was  most  profound,  the  old  regime  was  so  thor- 
oughly intrenched  in  the  social  organization  that  change 
could  come  only  as  a  result  of  a  violent  revolution.  In  ad- 
dition to  this  the  teachings  of  the  Emile  were  looked  upon, 
as,  indeed,  they  were,  as  direct  attacks  upon  the  aristocracy 


576  History  of  Education 

and  upon  the  Church.  Hence  the  vested  interests  and 
authority  of  both  were  invoked  against  it.  Many  of  the 
cahiers?  or  books  of  wrongs  and  grievances  of  the  early 
Revolution,  contain  complaints  and  recommendations  concern- 
ing schools.  In  general,  a  demand  was  made  for  a  national 
plan  for  education.  The  work  of  the  Revolution  was  chiefly 
to  lay  the  basis  for  the  institutional  organization  of  educa- 
tion. Little  was  carried  out,  but  much  was  projected.  Only 
with  certain  phases,  and  those  not  the  most  important,  can 
the  influence  of  Rousseau  be  connected.  Education  was  to 
be  universal  and  to  be  free ;  but  it  was  also  to  be  largely 
political  and  social.  Even  this  work,  the  discussion  of  which 
belongs  more  properly  under  the  sociological  tendency 
(p  73  0'  was  largely  checked  by  the  Napoleonic  reaction. 

In  England,  where  Rousseau's  literary  influence  was  very 
great  and  where  his  social  ideas  found  many  converts,  his 
educational  ideas  received  little  support.  True,  they  called 
forth  considerable  literature  on  the  subject;  but  as  England 
lacked  any  system  of  schools  and  as  education,  though  con- 
trolled to  a  great  extent  by  custom,  was  left  almost  wholly  to 
the  individual,  there  was  little  response  in  practice.  The 
more  restricted  and  more  common-sense  naturalism  of  Locke, 
combined  as  it  was  with  the  dominant  disciplinary  conception, 
recommended  itself  much  more  strongly  to  the  matter-of-fact 
Briton.  The  one  of  these  treatises  on  education  of  greatest 
originality  was  William  Godwin's  The  Enquirer.  There  is 
nothing  peculiarly  original  in  this,  —  in  fact,  it  does  not 
approach  the  breadth  of  interest  or  of  insight  of  the  Entile. 
In  simple  essay  form  many  of  these  principles  of  naturalistic 
education  are  set  forth.  The  following  paragraph  gives,  as 
nearly  as  a  single  statement  can,  the  underlying  thought  of 
these  somewhat  scattered  essays. 

1  Each  of  the  three  estates  in  every  district  drew  up  a  cahier ;  the  representa- 
tives of  that  estate  from  every  district  in  the  province  compiled  from  these  a  pro- 
vincial cahier  ;  in  the  States-general  a  committee  of  each  estate  formed  from  these 
a  general  cahier  for  its  own  estate,  and  these  were  presented  to  the  king. 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         577 

"  According  to  the  received  modes  of  education,  the  master 
goes  first,  the  pupil  follows.  According  to  the  method  recom- 
mended,  it  is  probable  that  the  pupil  should  go  first  and  the 
master  follow.  If  I  learn  nothing  but  what  I  desire  to  learn, 
what  should  hinder  me  from  being  my  own  preceptor  ?  The 
first  object  of  a  system  of  instruction  is  to  give  the  pupil  a 
motive  to  learn.  We  have  seen  how  far  the  established  sys- 
tems fail  in  this  office.  The  second  object  is  to  smooth  the 
difficulties  which  present  themselves  in  the  acquisition  of  knowl- 
edge." The  method  appropriate  to  this  has  thus  previously 
been  described  :  "  The  most  desirable  mode  of  education,  there- 
fore, in  all  instances  where  it  shall  be  found  sufficiently  practi- 
cable, is  that  which  is  careful  that  all  the  acquisitions  of  the 
pupil  shall  be  preceded  and  accompanied  by  desire.  The  best 
motive  to  learn  is  a  perception  of  the  value  of  the  thing 
learned.  The  worst  motive,  without  deciding  whether  or  not 
it  be  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  it,  may  well  be  affirmed  to 
be  constraint  and  fear." 

The  Work  of  Basedow,  Salzmann,  and  Campe  in  Germany 
was  the  immediate  outgrowth  of  Rousseau's  influence,  and 
represents  the  first  positive  formulation  in  practice  of  those 
revolutionary  ideas  given  only  a  negative  form  by  Rousseau. 
But  with  these,  as  later  with  Pestalozzi  and  others,  much  of 
the  positive  formulation  was  subject  to  the  same  criticism 
that  held  in  the  case  of  the  original  statement  of  Rousseau. 

Johann  Bernard  Basedow  (1723-1790)  gave  in  his  early 
career  and  in  his  irregular  course  as  a  student  evidence  of  his 
erratic  though  talented  nature  and  of  his  unstable  character. 
Becoming  professor  of  philosophy  in  a  Danish  Academy  ( 1 753) 
he  was  later  transferred  (1763),  and,  though  yet  salaried  by  the 
government,  was  soon  compelled  to  give  up  all  teaching  on 
account  of  his  unorthodox  views.  From  1763  he  deluged 
Germany  for  many  years  with  a  succession  of  publications,  and 
by  his  persistency  succeeded  in  making  his  influence  felt  in 
spite  of  violent  opposition  on  the  part  of  all  the  traditional 
orthodox  forces.  For  the  first  few  years  he  was  chiefly  in- 
terested in  reform  in  philosophical  and  religious  teaching; 


578 


History  of  Education 


most  of  his  publications  were  of  a  religious  character,  propa 
gating  Rousseau's  idea  of  natural  religion  and  morality.  The 
one  of  his  books  most  violently  resented  was  Methodical  In- 
struction, both  in  Natural  and  Biblical  Religion,  Coming 
under  the  influence  of  the  Emile,  from  1767  he  directed  his 
attention  wholly  to  educational  reform.  In  1768  he  issued 
An  Address  to  the  Friends  of  Humanity  and  to  Persons  in 


A  "  NATURALISTIC  "  SCHOOL,  FROM  BASEDOW'S  Elementarwerk. 

Power,  on  Schools,  on  Education,  and  its  Influence  on  Public 
Happiness,  which  contained  a  plan  for  a  complete  system  of 
reformed  elementary  education.  Advertised  through  many 
preliminary  publications,  supported  by  subscriptions  from 
all  parts  of  Europe  from  royalty  and  commonalty  alike, 
this  Elenicntarwerk  finally  appeared  in  1774.  At  the  same 
time  was  published  his  Book  of  Method  for  Fathers  and  Mothers 
of  Families  and  of  Nations.  This  Elementary  Work,  for  chil 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         579 

clien,  which  appeared  in  four  volumes  with  one  hundred  plates 
of  illustrations,  was  a  combination  of  the  ideas  of  Comenius, 
Bacon,  and  Rousseau.  It  was  the  first  step  since  the  time  of 
Comenius  to  improve  the  character  of  the  work  of  the  school 
through  the  preparation  of  appropriate  text-books  and  the 
radical  revision  of  the  subject-matter  of  school  work.  It 
aimed  first  of  all  to  give  a  knowledge  of  things  and  of  words 
quite  similar  to  the  encyclopedic  plan  of  the  seventeenth- 
century  reformer.  This  knowledge  was  primarily  a  knowl- 
edge of  natural  phenomena  and  forces ;  in  the  next  place,  a 
knowledge  of  morals  and  of  mental  phenomena ;  and,  lastly, 
of  social  duties,  of  commerce,  of  economic  affairs.  In  these 
latter  the  Rousseau  ideas  were  approximated.  The  "  natural 
methods  "  of  Rousseau  appeared  as  the  second  great  feature 
of  the  book.  Thus  through  the  "method  of  experience" 
children  were  to  be  taught  to  read,  both  the  vernacular  and 
Latin,  without  weariness  and  without  loss  of  time ;  and  in  a 
similar  way  the  truths  of  religion  and  of  morality  were  to  be 
imparted  without  the  accompanying  prejudices,  narrowness, 
and  formalism  of  existing  religious  teaching. 

If  we  are  to  accept  the  estimate  of  the  historian  of  the 
times,  these  volumes  were  soon  in  almost  every  home  of  the 
middle  and  upper  class  in  Germany,  just  as  were  the  Emile 
and  the  New  Htto'ise  of  Rousseau  in  the  preceding  decade.  As 
Basedow  aimed  to  reform  private  as  well  as  public  education, 
the  effect  of  this  propaganda  was  profound,  even  if  the  char- 
acter of  the  education  imparted  could  not  be  so  characterized. 

Basedow  and  his  followers,  among  whom  Salzmann  and 
Campe  were  the  most  important,  soon  produced  a  wholly  new 
literature  for  children.  As  for  the  first  time  there  was  an 
education  designed  wholly  for  children,  not  controlled  by  the 
needs,  character,  and  interests  of  adults,  so  also  this  was  the 
first  literature  designed  for  children.  Concerning  the  work 
of  these  men  Schlosser,1  the  great  German  historian  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  remarks :  — 

*•  History  of  tJu  Eighteenth  Century,  VoL  II,  pp.  203-204. 


580  History  of  Education 

"  They  and  their  successors  and  imitators  soon  deluged 
Germany  with  a  silly  literature  for  children,  and  sought  to 
bring  up  little  children  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  grown 
people  into  children.  They  were  zealous  opponents  of  both 
Jesuitical  and  pietistic  education,  because  they,  as  well  as  the 
Jesuits,  understood  how  to  obtain  the  favor  both  of  children 
and  parents.  They  put  an  end  indeed  to  all  pedantry,  but 
we  must  ascribe  to  them  and  their  plans  the  sauciness  and 
pertness  of  that  all-knowing  and  therefore  ignorant  and  pre- 
sumptuous generation  of  youths,  who  have  been  superficially 
educated  by  them,  and  of  whom  we  have  so  many  examples." 

It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  Basedow's  work  was  all 
positive  and  constructive.  The  greater  part  of  it,  especially 
his  early  work,  was  critical  and  destructive ;  and  much  that 
aimed  to  be  constructive  was  ill-founded,  erratic,  overpreten- 
tious,  superficial,  and  hence  ineffective.  Basedow  himself 
was  even  less  fitted  than  Rousseau  to  be  an  educational  re- 
former. It  is  sufficient  to  say  of  him  personally  that  he  was 
vulgar,  immoral,  intemperate,  given  to  the  vices  of  the  peas- 
antry from  which  he  sprang  without  possessing  their  funda- 
mental virtues ;  above  all  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  he  was 
in  some  respects  an  impostor  and  a  mountebank.  On  the 
other  hand  he  possessed  an  intellectual  ability,  a  definite 
aim  to  reform  the  educational  practices  of  his  time,  a  tenacity 
of  purpose  worthy  of  the  cause  in  which  he  enrolled  himself, 
a  rationalistic  insight  into  affairs,  and  a  power  of  arousing 
enthusiasm  in  others.  Notwithstanding  these  defects  and  the 
fact  that  he  was  totally  unable  to  carry  out  his  own  reform 
plans  because  he  was  so  unpractical,  Schlosser  states  that 
"  he  succeeded  in  effecting  a  complete  change  in  the  whole 
nature  of  education  and  instruction  in  Germany,  which  Rous- 
seau was  able  to  accomplish  neither  in  his  native  country  nor 
in  France." 

The  Philanthropinum.1  —  In  1774   was  founded  the  long- 

1  A  concrete  description  of  the  work  of  the  Philanthropinum,  translated  from 
Von  Raumer,  is  to  be  found  in  Barnard's  German  Teachers  and  Educators,  p.  461. 


Naturalistic  Tendency  in  Education         581 

neralded  institution,  erected  to  illustrate  the  principles  ot 
reformed  education  and  termed  the  Philanthropinum.  This 
institution  at  Dessau  was  the  parent  of  many  others,  more  oi 
less  short  lived,  but  existing  long  enough  to  exert  a  pro- 
found influence  on  the  education  of  children  throughout  the 
Teutonic  countries.  It  is  said  that  educational  institutions 
sprang  up  everywhere  like  factories.  After  the  final  over- 
throw of  the  Philanthropinum,  through  defective  manage- 
ment, "  the  teachers  from  Dessau  were  scattered  about 
in  all  parts  of  Germany,  and  each  applied  Basedow's  ideas 
according  to  his  own  plan,  they  erected  institutions,  and 
converted  what  had  been  previously  an  honorable  office  into 
a  trade." 1 

The  fundamental  idea  of  the  reform  was  "education 
according  to  nature,"  which  was  interpreted  to  mean  that 
children  should  be  treated  as  children,  not  as  adults ;  that 
languages  should  be  taught  by  conversational  methods,  not 
through  grammatical  studies ;  that  physical  exercises  and 
games  should  find  a  place  in  the  child's  education  ;  that  early 
training  should  be  connected  with  "  motion  and  noise,"  since 
children  naturally  love  these ;  that  each  child  should  be 
taught  a  handicraft,  for  reasons  partly  educational,  partly 
social ;  that  the  vernacular  rather  than  the  classical  languages 
should  constitute  the  chief  subject-matter  of  education ;  that 
instruction  should  be  connected  with  realities  rather  than 
with  words. 

The  objects  of  the  institution  were  to  educate  the  rich 
and  poor  together,  to  give  the  former  a  proper  natural  educa- 
tion for  social  activity  and  leadership  and  to  prepare  the 
latter  to  teach.  Under  more  competent  hands  the  institution 
continued  until  1 793  ;  meanwhile,  many  similar  institutions 
were  under  way,  two  or  three  of  which  were  widely  influen- 
tial. The  strong  emphasis  upon  the  training  of  teachers 
reacted  favorably  upon  the  entire  German  school  system. 

1  Schlosser,  Vol.  II,  p.  205. 


582  History  of  Education 

The  introduction  of  "  turning,  planing,  and  carpentering ' 
into  the  regular  course  of  study  of  the  Philanthropinum  for 
educational  purposes  is  the  earliest  practical  recognition  of 
the  purely  educational  value  of  positive  character  to  be 
found  in  manual  work.  School  instruction  from  objects  and 
from  pictures  here  first  found  an  elaboration  in  actual  school 
work.  The  connection  between  the  out-of-door  life  and  the 
process  of  instruction  was  made  more  intimate.  The  principle 
that  all  instruction  has  a  moral  because  a  practical  outcome, 
and  that  formal  moral  instruction  is  of  little  value  when  not 
thus  connected,  was  embodied  in  their  work. 

From  the  later  pages  of  this  book  it  will  be  recognized 
that  all  of  these  ideas  are  worked  out  more  explicitly  by  later 
reformers,  especially  Herbart,  Pestalozzi,  and  Froebel.  How- 
ever crudely  they  were  realized  in  the  work  of  Basedow,  his 
work  was  of  sufficient  merit  to  command  the  approval  of 
Kant,  while  the  general  ideas  and  the  man  himself  received 
the  commendation  of  Goethe.  Though  Basedow  was  with- 
out question  much  of  a  charlatan  in  his  educational  work,  as 
he  was  also  a  drunkard  and  an  impractical  visionary,  at  the 
same  time  his  work  undoubtedly  initiated  the  reform  move- 
ment in  the  German  schools.  His  methods  of  instruction  in 
geography,  physics,  nature  study,  history,  geometry,  and 
arithmetic  were  as  revolutionary  and  as  fruitful  as  those  of 
Pestalozzi,  and  his  application  of  them  was  quite  as  success- 
ful. But  since  the  later  reformer  came  to  a  clearer  con- 
sciousness of  the  principles  underlying  the  new,  and  gave 
the  Rousseau  influence  the  particular  tendency  in  regard  to 
method  along  which  it  afterward  developed,  further  considera- 
tions of  the  movement  must  be  given  in  that  connection. 
However,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  the  common  practice  of 
attributing  the  reform  in  education  throughout  the  Teutonic 
countries  to  Pestalozzi  is  an  erroneous  one,  and  that  at  an 
earlier  period  Basedow  had  exerted  as  profound  an  influence 
toward  practical  reform  as  did  Pestalozzi  a  generation  later. 


Naturalistic   Tendency  in  Education         583 

The  latter  reformer  but  continued  along  slightly  different 
lines  the  movement  initiated  by  Basedow  and  popularized 
by  his  followers. 

Joachim  Heinrich  Campe  (1746-1818)  was  the  leading 
follower  of  Basedow,  his  successor  at  Dessau,  the  founder 
of  a  philanthropinum  at  Hamburg,  and  the  author  of  a  great 
number  of  works  embodying  the  idea  of  the  new  education. 
His  Robinson  der  Jungere  (1779)  was  the  model  for  Wyss' 
Swiss  Family  Robinson,  familiar  to  children  of  every  land. 
The  didactic  character,  the  penchant  for  information,  espe- 
cially for  that  of  natural  phenomena,  the  familiar  moralizing, 
the  religious  coloring,  one  might  almost  say  the  cant,  that 
pervades  this  little  volume  is  characteristic  of  the  entire  move- 
ment. Among  Campe's  works  are  many  for  teachers.  He 
also  translated  the  works  of  Locke  and  Rousseau  as  a  basis 
for  the  educational  reform  movement. 

Christian  GottJtelf  Salzmann  (1744-1811)  was,  next  to 
Basedow  and  Campe,  the  most  prominent  of  these  exponents 
of  the  new  education  and  a  most  voluminous  writer  on  educa- 
tion. Most  of  these  writings  sought  to  combine  a  strong  reli- 
gious and  moralizing  tendency  with  the  naturalistic  tendencies 
of  Rousseau.  As  with  Campe,  Salzmann,  in  his  attempt  to 
embody  these  ideas  in  a  new  educational  material,  produced 
many  popular  works  for  children. 

These  men  were  followed  in  turn  by  a  multitude  of  minor 
educators,  many  of  them  pretenders,  who  sought  to  take 
advantage  of  this  serious  reform  movement,  merely  for  their 
own  advantage.  As  the  philanthropinist  movement  was  an 
eminently  practical  one,  this  was  most  easily  accomplished. 


REFERENCES 
The  Enlightenment. 

Francke,  Social  Forces  in  German  Literature,  Chs.  VII-VIII.    (New  York 

1897.) 
Hegel,  Philosophy  of  History,  Sec.  Ill,  Ch.  III. 


584  History  of  Education 

Schlosser,  History  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  8  vols. 
Texte,  Rousseau  and  the  Cosmopolitan  Influence  in  Literature,  Bk.  I, 
II-III.     (London,  1899.) 

Rousseau. 

Davidson,  Rousseau,  Pt.  II.     (New  York,  1898.) 

Hudson,  Rousseau  and  Naturalism  in  Life  and  Thought,  Pt.  I.     (New 

York,  1902.) 
Macdonald,  Studies  in  the  France  of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau,  Ch.   II. 

(London,  1895.) 
Morley,  Rousseau,  2  vols.     (London,  1888.) 

Doctrine  of  the  Natural  State. 

Davidson,  Rousseau,  Pt.  I. 

Hudson,  Ch.  VI. 

Macdonald,  Ch.  VII. 

Morley,  Rousseau,  Vol.  I,  Ch.  V. 

Payne,  Rousseau's  Entile,  Introduction. 

Rousseau,  A  Dissertation  on  the  Origin  and  Foundation  of  the  Inequality 

of  Mankind.     (English  translations  in  any  edition  of  Rousseau's 

miscellaneous  works.) 
Rousseau,  A  Dissertation  on  the  Effects  of  Cultivating  the  Arts  and  Sciences. 

The  Emtle  and  Rousseatfs  Educational  Ideas. 

Davidson,  Rousseau,  Pt.  III. 

Hudson,  Ch.  IX. 

Morley,  Rousseau,  Vol.  II,  Ch.  VII. 

Munroe,  The  Educational  Ideal.     (Boston,  1896.) 

Payne,  Rousseau }s  Entile. 

Quick,  Educational  Reformers,  Ch.  XIV. 

The  Naturalistic  Tendency  in  Germany. 

Barnard,  German  Teachers  and  Educators,  pp.  457-491. 
Quick,  Educational  Reformers,  Basedow,  Ch.  XV. 
Schlosser,  History  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  Vol.  II,  Ch.  II. 


TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  INVESTIGATION 

1.  What   ideals  of  education  can  you  discover  in  Lord  Chesterfield's 
Letters  to  his  Son? 

2.  What  agreement  is  there   between   the   educational  ideas  of  "the 
Enlightenment"  and  those  of  Montaigne? 


Naturalistic  Tendency  in  Education         585 

3.  What  parallels  and  what  connections  can  be  discovered  during  the 
eighteenth  century  between  the  development  of  either  philosophical,  reli 
gious,  or  political  thought  and  educational  thought  ? 

4.  In  their  educational  bearings  what  similarity  is  there  between  "the 
Enlightenment"  and  the  fifteenth-century  Renaissance? 

5.  What  justification  can  you  find  in  the  Emile  and  in  the  other 
writings  of  Rousseau  for  this  threefold  interpretation  of  the  naturalistic 
doctrine? 

6.  What  concrete  evidences  and  results  of  each  aspect  of  naturalistic 
education  are  to  be  found  in  the  Entile  ? 

7.  To  what  extent  is  Rousseau  correct  in  his  contention  that  educa- 
tion should  be  negative? 

8.  What  defects  can  you  point  out  in   Rousseau's  ideas  of  moral 
education  ? 

9.  What  are  the  details   of  Rousseau's   ideas   of  the   education  of 
women,  and  wherein  do  they  controvert  his  general  educational  principles  ? 

10.  To  what  extent  did  Jefferson  and  the  early  American  statesmen 
owe  their  ideas  on  education  to  Rousseau ;  or  to  what  extent,  at  least,  is 
there  a  similarity  between  them? 

11.  What  similarity  and  what  differences  of  views  between  Rousseau 
and  Locke  are  to  be  found?     Between  Rousseau  and  Montaigne? 

12.  What  basis  does  Rousseau  offer  for  the  doctrine  of  self-activity 
emphasized  by  Froebel  ?     For  the  doctrine  of  interest  ? 

13.  To  what  extent  are  Rousseau's  principles  of  education  applicable 
at  the  present  time? 

14.  Which  of  Rousseau's  ideas  concerning  education  would  be  rejected 
now? 

15.  Give  a  statement  in  positive  form  of  the  ideas  stated  negatively  by 
Rousseau. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF  •  EDUCATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  DURING  THI 
NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


POLITICAL 
EVENTS  AND 
PERSONAGES 

LITERARY 
MEN, 
RELIGIOUS 
LEADERS, 

ETC. 

SCIENTISTS 

AND 

PHILOSO- 
PHERS 

EDUCATIONAL 
WRITINGS  AND 
EDUCATORS 

EDUCATIONAL  EVENTS 

1800. 

Goethe 

Hegel 

Pestalozzi, 

1803.     Sunday-school  Union  f. 

1804.    Bonaparte 
emperor. 

1749-1832 
Wordsworth 

1770-1831 
Cuvier 

How  Gertrude 
Teaches    .  1801 

1805.     Public  School  Society  of 
New  York. 

1807.     Class 
distinctions 

1770-1850 
Byron 

1769-1832 
Comte 

Jacotot     1770-1840 
Herbart,  1776-1841 

1806.     University  of  France  f. 
1806.     Neef  introduces 

and  serfdom 

1788-1824 

1798-1857 

Froebel    1782  1852 

Pestalozzi  in  United  States. 

abolished  in 

Scott 

Faraday 

Thomas  Arnold 

1808.     First  treatise  on  education 

Germany. 
1814.    Bonaparte 

1771-1832 
Coleridge 

1791-1867 
Hamilton 

1795-1842 
Rosmini 

published  in  United  States. 
1809.     University  of  Berlin 

at  Elba. 

1772-1834 

1788-1856 

1797-1855 

founded. 

1815.    Congress 

Irving 

Liebig 

Herbart's  General 

1808-1811.     Von  Humboldt  head 

of  Vienna. 
Frederick 

1783-1859 
Cooper 

1807-1877 
J  S   Mill 

Pedagogics,  1806 
Horace  Mann 

of  German  schools. 
1804-1844       Fellenberg's    School 

William 

1789-1851 

1806-1873 

1796-1859 

at  Hofwyl. 

1797-1840 

Emerson 

Herbert 

Rosenkranz 

1811.     National  Society  for 

1810-1830.    Free- 

1803 1882 

Spencer 

1805-1879 

Promotion  of  Ed.  of  the  Poor. 

dom  of  South 
American 

Thackeray 
1811-1863 

1820-1903 
Buckle, 

George  Combe 
1788-1858 

1813      First  State  superintendent 
of  ed.  in  United  States  (N.Y.). 

States. 

Dickens 

History 

Froebel, 

1814      British  and  Foreign  School 

1817.    Wartburg 
demonstration 

1812-1870 

of  Civili- 
zation 

Education  of 
Man  .          .  1826 

Society. 
1818.     Lancaster  comes  to  U.S. 

for  freedom. 

1857 

Spencer,  Essay  on 

1821.     First  legislative  aid  for 

1830.     July 
Revolution  in 

Darwin, 
Origin  of 

Education,  1861 
Alexander  Bain 

education  of  women  (N.Y.). 
1821.     First  High  School 

France. 

Species 

1818-1887 

(Boston). 

1830.     Reform 

1859 

Henry  Barnard 

1827.     AH  schools  free  in 

bill  in 

Agassiz 

1811-1900 

Massachusetts 

England. 
1833     Slavery 

1807-1873 
Darwin 

Stoy      .  1815-1885 
Otto  Frick 

18-55.     Cousin's  Report  published 
in  United  States. 

abolished  in 
British 

1811-1882 
Wallace 

1832  1892 
Tuiskon  Zeller 

1837.     Mount  Holyoke  seminary 
for  women. 

colonies. 

1820 

1817-1883 

1837-1849.     Mann  Secretary  of 

1846.     Corn 

R.  H.  Quick 

Mass.  Bureau  of  Ed. 

laws  repealed. 

1831-1891 

1837.     First  kindergarten. 

1848.     French 
Revolution. 

1837.     First  city  superintendent 
of  schools. 

1851.    New 

1838.     First  State  normal  school 

French 

in  United  States  (Mass  ). 

Empire. 
1854.    Crimean 

1843.     School  Board  in  New  York 
City. 

War. 

1850.     Kindergartens  forbidden  in 

1870.     Franco- 

Germany. 

Prussian  War. 
1871.    German 

1860.     First  kindergarten  in  U.S. 
1861.     First  PhD.  in  U.S. 

Empire 

1862.     Morrell  land  grant  for 

founded. 

agricultural  and  technical 

1871.    The 

education. 

Union  of  Italy. 

1867.     Elective  system  at 
Harvard. 

1867.     United  States 

Commissioner  of  Education. 

1867.    All  State  schools  free  in 
New  York. 

1869.    English  Endowed  School 

Act. 

1870.    Elem.  Ed.  Act  in  Eng. 

1873.     Kindergarten  part  of 

public  school  (St.  Louis). 

1890.     Berlin  School  Conference. 

1896-1897.    University  of  France 

reorganized. 

$86 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  TENDENCY  IN   EDUCATION 

THE  GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS.  —  These  three  ten 
dencies,  the  psychological,  sociological,  and  scientific,  growing 
out  of  the  thought  of  the  later  eighteenth  century,  developed 
together  and  are  not  always  clearly  distinguishable  in  time, 
in  place,  or  in  personnel.  So  far  as  its  full  effect  on  schools 
was  concerned,  the  psychological  tendency,  relating  chiefly 
to  educational  method,  had  some  precedence  in  time  over  the 
scientific  tendency,  relating  chiefly  to  subject-matter,  and 
over  the  sociological,  relating  both  to  subject-matter  and  to 
organization.  As  the  direct  outgrowth  of  the  naturalistic 
tendency,  the  psychological  tendency  has  the  logical  claim  to 
first  consideration. 

In  the  summary  of  the  general  educational  results  of  the 
naturalistic  movement,  it  will  be  recalled  that  all  those  in- 
fluences,  save  possibly  one,  related  to  the  method  of  educa- 
tion as  method  grows  out  of  the  nature  of  the  child.  The 
psychological  tendency  was  simply  the  clarifying  and  devel- 
oping of  these  positions ;  for  certainly  the  basal  thought  of  the 
psychological  tendency  was  that  education  is  not  an  artificial 
procedure,  by  which  one  comes  into  possession  of  a  knowledge 
of  the  forms  of  language  and  literature  or  of  formal  knowl- 
edge of  any  sort,  but  that  it  is  a  natural  process  of  growth 
from  within,  of  an  unfolding  of  capacities  implanted  in  our 
nature.  In  other  words,  education  was  considered  as  a  devel- 
opment, or  organic  growth,  which  could  be  hindered  or 
helped  by  the  methods  in  which  the  natural  capacities  or 
activities  were  treated.  The  great  difference  between  the 

587 


588  History  of  Education 

Rousseau  ideas  and  the  psychological  principles  was  that  the 
former  were  mostly  negative  and  destructive ;  while  the  psy- 
chological tendency  was  the  effort  to  state  these  ideas  in 
positive  form  and  to  give  the  influences  a  concrete  formula- 
tion in  actual  school  procedures.  In  one  respect  the  central 
thought  of  the  psychological  tendency,  as  expressed  by  its 
leading  exponents,  was  a  radical  advance  beyond  that  of 
Rousseau.  The  naturalistic  tendency  had  opposed  most 
violently  the  dominant  education  of  the  school,  whose  spirit 
and  purpose  were  represented  in  the  disciplinary  conception  of 
education.  The  psychological  tendency,  on  the  other  hand, 
sought  a  reconciliation  of  the  conflict  between  the  old  "  edu- 
cation of  effort"  and  the  new  "education  of  interest."  But 
since  the  old  remained  intrenched  for  many  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  the  work  of  the  new  was  to  destroy 
it  by  conflict,  it  was  this  latter  aspect  of  conflict  rather  than 
that  of  reconciliation  that  was  ever  most  prominent.  The 
fact  that  the  rank  and  file  of  the  new  educators  —  those  that 
followed  the  lead  of  the  few  great  exponents  without  having 
their  grasp  of  the  problem  —  emphasized  almost  exclusively 
the  importance  of  method,  and  in  this  connection  the  impor- 
tance of  interest  also,  led  to  emphasis  upon  conflict  rather  than 
upon  reconciliation.  For  while  the  philosophical  statement 
of  theory  by  the  leading  exponents  of  the  new  recognized  the 
importance  of  effort,  it  was  in  regard  to  details  of  method 
that  the  conflict  was  most  apparent  and  seemingly  most  ir- 
reconcilable. Having  in  mind,  then,  simply  the  historical 
aspect,  and  that  chiefly  as  it  affected  the  schools  previous  to 
the  last  twenty  years,  one  may  say  that  the  psychological 
movement,  as  here  limited,  continued  the  period  of  conflict. 
The  attempt  at  reconciliation  becomes  prominent  in  the  con- 
temporary aspects  of  thought  and  practice,  in  which  the 
psychological  tendency  becomes  fused  with  other  nineteenth- 
century  tendencies,  and  is  to  be  considered  in  the  concluding 
chapter. 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        589 

However  profound  may  have  been  the  effort  of  Herbart 
and  Froebel  to  effect  this  reconciliation,  in  the  popular  con- 
ception there  was  an  irreconcilable  opposition.  A  brief 
extract,  contrasting  the  main  ideas  of  these  two  views,  taken 
from  a  review  of  one  of  Pestalozzi's  works  by  Caroline  Frye 
in  her  Assistant  of  Education^  will  serve  as  an  illustration. 

"  Of  the  second  work,  Pestalozzi's  Letters  on  Early  Educa- 
tion, we  have  little  to  say.  A  book  written  for  the  inhabitants 
of  Mars,  if  there  are  any,  would  almost  as  much  come  under 
our  task  of  criticism.  If  there  be  a  people  between  the  Alps, 
in  the  bosom  of  whose  offspring  there  is  an  innate  principle 
of  faith  and  love,  that  needs  only  to  be  cultivated  and  cherished 
by  the  sacred  power  of  innocence,  to  produce  pure  morality 
and  exalted  devotion,  this  book  belongs  to  them.  It  need 
not  have  been  put  into  English,  or  any  language  into  which 
the  word  of  God  has  been  translated ;  for  it  belies  it  utterly. 
We  have  no  such  children  to  educate,  and  therefore  the  book 
is  useless  to  us.  I  could  not  help  comparing  the  following 
passage,  one  among  many  such,  of  Pestalozzi  — '  I  would,  in 
the  first  place,  direct  your  attention  to  the  existence  and  the 
early  manifestation  of  a  spiritual  principle,  even  in  an  infant 
mind.  I  would  put  in  the  strongest  light  that  there  is  in  the 
child  an  active  power  of  faith  and  love ;  the  two  principles 
by  which,  under  the  divine  guidance,  our  nature  is  made  to 
participate  in  the  highest  blessings  that  are  in  store  for  us. 
And  this  power  is  not,  as  other  faculties  are,  in  a  dormant 
state  in  the  infant  mind.  While  all  other  faculties,  whether 
mental  or  physical,  present  the  image  of  utter  helplessness, 
of  a  weakness  which  in  its  first  attempts  at  exertion  only 
leads  to  pain  and  disappointment,  that  same  power  of  faith 
and  love  displays  an  energy,  an  intensity,  which  is  never  sur- 
passed by  its  most  successful  efforts  when  in  full  growth  '  — 
we  could  not  help  comparing  with  curiosity  this  dream  of 
Socinianism,  with  some  sentences  from  a  Christian  author2 
we  happened  to  take  up  on  the  same  day :  — '  No  sooner  do 
children  begin  to  act  at  all,  but  we  discover  how  universally 
sin  has  pervaded  all  the  sources  of  intelligence.  There  is  a 
greater  pleasure  in  reflecting  on  the  images  of  crime  than 

1  Vol.  IX,  p.  363.  2  Ne-'ham,  On  (he  Principles  of  Education. 


590  History  of  Education 

on  the  character  of  piety ;  the  conscience  is  enfeebled  and 
oppressed ;  its  voice  is  stifled  and  its  actions  perverted ;  the 
imagination  delights  to  revel  over  scenes  of  iniquity,  and  is 
difficultly  carried  forward  to  anticipations  of  future  happiness, 
glory,  and  praise :  the  will  is  enslaved  by  selfishness ;  the 
imitation  of  all  that  is  wrong  is  most  easy,  —  of  all  that  is 
right  is  most  onerous,  — the  judgment  is  prone  to  perpetual 
error;  the  evil  passions  grow  and  flourish,  while  the  good  are 
educated  with  difficulty.'  The  Christian  mother  will  com- 
pare these  opposing  principles  with  the  testimony  of  Scrip- 
ture and  of  her  own  heart,  and  will  have  no  difficulty  in 
deciding  in  which  author  to  study  the  principles  of  education." 

The  emphasis  upon  interest  and  the  conception  that  educa- 
tion is  but  a  development  of  germs,  or  powers,  implanted  in 
the  child's  nature,  formed  but  part  of  a  large  thought  which 
constituted  an  essential  of  this  tendency.  The  idea  that 
education  should  be  according  to  nature,  which  constituted 
an  aspect  of  the  thought  of  the  sense-realists  as  well  as  that 
of  Rousseau,  now  took  more  definite  shape  as  a  newer  con- 
ception of  human  nature  tends  to  take  the  place  of  the  old 
one  that  had  prevailed  so  long.  This  newer  conception  in 
education  was  closely  bound  up  with  that  which  at  the  same 
time  was  taking  shape  in  philosophy  and  in  science.  Educa- 
tionally "  nature  "  now  came  to  indicate  the  nature,  or  mind, 
of  man ;  and  the  principles  upon  which  education  was  to  be 
based  were  now  sought  for  in  the  principles  of  activity  and  of 
development  of  the  human  mind.  It  is  true,  however,  that 
the  scientific  formulation  of  these  principles  of  psychology,  as 
based  upon  an  accurate  scientific  knowledge  derived  by 
observation  and  experimental  method,  was  hardly  begun 
before  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  that  the 
application  of  these  to  education  is  yet  largely  the  work  of 
the  future ;  but  the  movement  itself  was  begun  in  the  early 
part  of  the  century. 

However  much  the  Middle  Ages  had  modified  the  psy- 
chology of  Aristotle,  no  advance  was  made  until  the  opening 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        591 

of  the  modern  philosophical  and  scientific  movement,  which 
was  the  source  of  the  educational  movement  described  under 
the  term  sense-realism.  Descartes,  and  after  him  Hobbes 
and  Spinoza,  had  emphasized  the  relationship  between  phys- 
ical and  mental  processes.  While  this  was  the  key  to  the 
solution  of  the  psychological  problems,  its  general  signifi- 
cance was  not  grasped  until  later.  Locke,  who  was  not 
primarily  a  psychologist,  attempted  to  show  that  all  knowl- 
edge is  due  to  the  data  given  by  sense-perception  and  reflec- 
tion. This  again  emphasized  the  dependence  of  the  psychical 
upon  physical  processes  and  the  importance  of  training  of 
the  sense  organs ;  but  its  chief  immediate  influence  was  that 
upon  the  associative  theory  of  knowledge,  which  practically 
controlled  throughout  the  eighteenth  century.  With  the 
opening  of  the  century  there  came  a  marked  development  of 
the  idea  of  psycho-physical  parallelism,  due  especially  to 
Herbart  and  Hartley.  Herbart  investigated  the  origin  and 
development  of  space  and  time  relations  —  aspects  of  the 
mind's  activities  previously  held  innate  —  as  connected  with 
sense  perceptions  and  physical  processes.  Herbart  men- 
tioned experimentation  and  experience  along  with  meta- 
physics and  mathematics  as  the  three  sources  of  knowl- 
edge of  the  mind.  Yet,  so  far  as  his  dominant  attitude  is 
concerned,  he  is  yet  classed  with  the  old  psychologists, 
who  based  their  interpretation  of  mental  phenomena  on 
metaphysical  grounds.  But  in  completely  throwing  over 
the  old  psychology  of  the  faculties,  he  is  held  to  be  the 
founder  of  the  new.  So  in  Herbart,  who  played  so  im- 
portant a  part  in  this  educational  development,  psychol- 
ogy finds  the  dividing  line  between  the  old  and  the 
new.  Pestalozzi's  gropings  after  these  principles  of  educa- 
tion, founded  in  a  new  and  truer  conception  of  the 
human  mind,  were  purely  empirical.  Even  the  interpreta- 
tions reached  by  Herbart  have  had  to  be  reformulated  — 
many  of  them  to  be  entirely  rejected.  But  the  significant 


592  History  of  Education 

truth  reached  was  the  conviction  that  this  more  accurate 
interpretation  of  human  nature,  based  upon  a  careful  scien- 
tific study  of  the  mind,  was  now  possible,  and  that  an  ade- 
quate conception  of  education  and  any  formulation  of  more 
fruitful  processes  of  instruction  must  be  based  upon  the 
results  of  such  study.  To  this  general  tendency,  vague 
and  indefinite  as  it  was  in  its  application  to  education,  we 
have  here  given  the  term  psychological.  The  most  that 
can  be  essayed  in  this  limited  space  is  an  account  of  what 
those  of  the  leading  innovators  in  this  line  attempted. 

One  further  characteristic  of  this  tendency  which,  as  just 
seen,  may  not  be  quite  adequately  characterized  by  the  term 
psychological,  is  that  it  aimed  at  improvement  in  the  character 
of  education ;  whereas  the  complementary  movement,  which 
in  the  same  general  way  may  be  characterized  as  sociological, 
aimed  at  the  more  general  diffusion  of  education.  The  inter- 
est of  the  men  included  in  this  group,  or  —  more  accurately 
—  the  modifying  influence  of  these  tendencies  included 
under  this  term,  was  directed  chiefly  to  the  improvement  in 
the  method  of  instruction,  in  the  spirit  of  the  schoolroom, 
in  the  character  and  training  of  the  teacher,  and  in  the  popu- 
larization of  a  broader  and  truer  conception  of  the  nature  of 
education. 

Thus  there  followed  a  sympathy  for  childhood,  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  child,  of  the  child  mind,  of  the  child's  interests 
and  abilities,  that  were  wholly  unknown  in  previous  periods 
and  entirely  absent  from  the  schoolroom  in  all  previous  ages. 
While  the  actual  knowledge  of  the  child  mind  was  at  first 
slight  and  for  a  long  time  was  gained  by  empirical  means 
alone,  yet  educational  practice  came  to  be  based  upon  a  study 
of  childhood,  and  the  theories  concerning  education  came  to 
be  formulated  from  data  gathered  during  actual  contact  with 
the  child. 

Consequently,  the  chief  interest  in  education  was  diverted 
to  an  entirely  different  phase  of  the  educational  process.  Foi 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        593 

many  centuries,  it  will  be  recalled,  the  interest  in  education 
was  in  the  secondary  and  higher  stages.  All  the  early  re- 
formers, the  realists  as  well  as  the  humanists,  thought  espe- 
cially of  the  acquisition  of  foreign  languages  and  literature 
as  the  chief  work  of  education.  Little  or  no  attention  was 
given  to  the  elementary  stage.  Comenius,  it  is  true,  wrote 
of  infant  and  vernacular  schools,  but  he  supervised  and  wrote 
text-books  for  the  Latin  schools.  The  chief  immediate  inter- 
est of  almost  all  those  participating  in  this  new  tendency,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  Herbart  made  use  of  the  Greek 
and  Latin  for  his  educational  instruments,  was  in  the  ele- 
mentary stage.  Pestalozzi's  ideas  and  practices  are  limited 
to  work  in  reading  in  the  vernacular,  to  writing,  and  to  arith- 
metic. While  Froebel  wrote  concerning  the  philosophy  of 
education  as  a  whole,  his  practical  work  and  influence  was 
confined  to  the  earliest  stages.  From  that  time  to  this  the 
formulation  of  educational  theory  and  the  improvement  in 
educational  practice  has,  with  few  exceptions,  related  prima- 
rily to  elementary  education.  Since  most  educational  prin- 
ciples have  been  formulated  with  the  problems  of  elementary 
education  only  in  mind,  and  since  many  such  principles  have 
been  projected,  without  sufficient  adaptation,  to  apply  to 
higher  stages,  when  applicable  in  the  given  form  only  to 
those  conditions  from  which  deduced,  this  condition  has  often 
resulted  in  confusion. 

A  fundamental  conception  of  the  psychological  tendency  — 
that  education  is  the  process  of  the  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual —  accorded  with  the  individualizing  tendencies  of  the 
later  eighteenth  and  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
with  the  ideas  of  social  progress,  of  biological  development, 
and  of  evolution  in  all  its  scientific  and  philosophical  impli- 
cations, that  during  the  same  period  were  becoming  clarified. 
Though  stated  in  quite  different  terms  now,  the  thought  and 
even  the  form  accepted  for  two  or  three  generations  was  that 
given  by  Pestalozzi;  namely,  that  education  was  "the  har- 

3Q 


594  History  of  Education 

monious  development  of  all  the  powers  of  the  individual 
The  same  general  idea,  in  different  terminology,  due  to  more 
accurate  knowledge  of  psychology,  is  now  expressed  in  terms 
of  "  organization  of  acquired  habits  of  action  or  tendencies  to 
behavior."  This  conception  of  education  in  terms  of  indi- 
vidual development  is  an  essential  feature  of  the  psychological 
conception  of  education,  and  is  one  great  contribution  of  the 
late  eighteenth  and  the  early  nineteenth  century  to  education. 
Nevertheless,  this  conception  has  its  sociological  significance 
and  coincides  with  the  tendency  to  universal  education  in  one 
respect ;  namely,  if  education  is  the  process  of  development 
of  the  individual,  if  it  is  at  basis  a  natural  rather  than  an  arti- 
ficial process,  it  is  a  process  through  which  all  human  beings 
go  and  a  process  from  the  regulation  and  direction  of  which 
all  can  profit.  Consequently  there  results  an  emphasis  upon 
popular  and  universal  education  that  was  not  possible  so  long 
as  the  chief  interest  was  in  higher  education,  and  so  long  as 
education  was  the  process  of  giving  to  the  child  or  forcing 
on  the  child  the  ideas,  emotional  reactions,  and  activities  of 
adults. 

PHILOSOPHICAL    ASPECT    OF    THE    MOVEMENT.— 

Closely  related  to  the  psychological  tendency  was  the 
philosophical.  So  closely  related  in  fact  that  instead  of 
two  movements  the  psychological  movement  may  be  con- 
sidered as  possessing  two  aspects,  one  practical  and  concrete, 
which  through  experimentation  attempted  to  work  out  general 
principles,  the  other  metaphysical  in  its  characteristics  and 
aiming  at  the  formulation  of  the  logic  of  education.  It  is  only 
the  former  that  can  be  considered  here,  since  the  men  repre- 
senting the  practical  movement  —  Pestalozzi,  Herbart,  Froebel 
—  but  expressed  the  dominant  ideas  gained  from  the  thought 
movement  typified  by  Kant,  Fichte,  Schelling,  Schleiermacher, 
and  Hegel.  As  occupants  of  chairs  of  philosophy,  these 
men  found  it  part  of  their  duty  to  lecture  on  education,  yet 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        595 

with  most  it  was  of  subsidiary  interest.  The  one  man  who 
•represented  both  movements  was  Herbart.  There  are  many 
of  less  prominence  in  both  groups,  especially  in  more  recent 
times,  whose  writings,  though  of  value,  and  whose  influence, 
though  of  importance  in  their  respective  countries,  cannot  be 
iiscussed  here. 

The  Philosopher  Kant  (1724-1804)  had  as  a  part  of  his 
scholastic  duties  the  delivering  of  a  course  of  lectures  upon 
education.  The  notes  of  these  were  published  in  1803  under 
the  title  On  Education  (Ueber  Padagogik}.  Much  in  these 
was  carried  over  from  his  philosophy  and  ethics ;  much  was 
common  to  the  thought  of  the  times.  In  fact,  his  work 
reads  like  a  combination  of  the  familiar  ideas  of  Locke  and 
Rousseau,  in  which  the  extreme  naturalism  and  freedom  of 
the  French  emotionalist  is  tempered  with  much  of  the  dis 
cipline  of  the  English  rationalist.  The  groundwork  of  the 
treatise  is  given  in  the  first  paragraph:  "Man  is  the  only 
being  who  needs  education.  For  by  education  we  must  needs 
understand  nurture  (the  tending  and  feeding  of  the  child), 
discipline  and  teaching,  together  with  culture.  According  to 
this,  man  is  in  succession  infant  (requiring  nursing),  child 
(requiring  discipline),  and  scholar  (requiring  teaching)." 
While  the  germs  of  development  are  in  nature,  it  is  only 
through  education  that  they  are  perfected.  "  There  are 
many  germs  lying  undeveloped  in  man.  It  is  for  us  to  make 
these  germs  grow,  by  developing  his  natural  gifts  in  their 
due  proportion,  and  to  see  that  he  fulfills  his  destiny."  Thus 
is  suggested  one  of  the  earliest  harmonizations  of  the  educa- 
tion of  interest  (nature)  and  the  education  of  effort  (disci- 
pline). While  Kant  follows  Rousseau  in  insisting  on  the 
education  of  the  child  for  himself,  yet  he  maintains  that  his 
education  must  be  "  not  for  the  present,  but  for  a  possibly 
improved  condition  of  man  in  the  future."  The  treatment  of 
the  subject  divides  into  four  topics ;  through  education  man 
must  be  made  subject  to  discipline,  must  be  supplied  with 


596  History  of  Education 

culture,  endowed  with  discretion,  and  be  made  moral 
Through  discipline  the  unruliness  of  nature  is  subjected  to 
reason.  Through  culture,  consisting  of  information  and  in- 
struction, ability  is  brought  out  which  later  may  be  applied  to 
various  ends  determined  by  moral  and  practical  education. 
Through  discretion  one  is  enabled  to  conduct  himself  with 
propriety  and  refinement  in  society.  Through  moral  educa- 
tion one's  disposition  is  so  trained  that  he  chooses  only  good 
aims  in  life.  This  latter,  so  neglected  in  education,  is  in 
reality  its  highest  end. 

Johann  Karl  Friederick  Rosenkranz  (1805-1879),  the  suc- 
cessor of  Kant  and  Herbart  in  the  philosophical  chair  at 
Konigsberg,  published  a  Philosophy  of  Education  in  1848, 
which  was  largely  an  interpretation  of  the  philosophy  of 
Hegel  in  educational  terms.  Man's  true  nature  is  his  ideal 
nature,  found  at  birth  only  in  germ  but  developed  by  a  pro- 
cess of  education.  This  process  consists  in  the  putting  away 
or  suppression  of  his  first  or  animal  nature  by  a  process  of 
"estrangement"  and  of  gradual  approximation  to  his  ideal 
nature  by  an  assimilation  of  those  things  which  belong  to 
culture.  Education  is  a  process  of  "  self-estrangement "  and 
of  "  identification  "  with  the  self  of  that  which  was  previously 
foreign  and  existed  only  in  the  ideal.  Through  the  applica- 
tion of  this  principle  to  various  phases,  a  philosophy  of  moral 
and  religious  as  well  as  intellectual  education,  of  discipline,  of 
method,  and  of  the  history  of  education  is  worked  out. 

The  interest  felt  in  the  formulation  of  the  problems  of 
education  by  this  group  of  men  is  largely  of  a  theoretic  char- 
acter ;  the  practical  bearing  is  given  through  those  mentioned 
in  the  other  group. 

The  Phrenological  Movement.  —  One  other  aspect  of  the 
psychological  tendency,  in  its  earlier  form,  needs  to  be  men- 
tioned at  least  on  account  of  its  historical  association.  This 
was  the  widely  popular  "  science  of  phrenology,"  now  so 
discredited  that  its  advocacy  is  immediately  condemned  as 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        59) 

charlatanism.  In  its  earlier  stages,  however,  this  movement 
nad  a  far  more  respectable  following  and  an  educational 
influence  of  no  mean  character.  The  major  premise  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  phrenologists  is  the  belief  that  all  nature  is 
governed  by  law  and  that  there  is  a  close  relationship  between 
the  physical  and  psychical ;  its  minor  premise,  that  many 
mental  functions  have  localized  brain  centers.  Both  are 
accepted  by  present  science.  Modern  investigators  have,  how- 
ever, rejected  its  conclusion  that  any  mental  trait  is  propor- 
tionate in  strength  to  the  size  of  a  given  identified  portion 
of  the  brain  organism  and  that  this  importance  is  indicated 
by  external  conformations  of  the  skull.  That  it  was  no  charla- 
tanism in  its  day  is  indicated  by  the  men  who  were  prominent 
leaders  in  the  movement  and  by  its  educational  influence. 
Lavater  and  Spurzheim  in  Germany,  George  Combe  in  Eng- 
land, Horace  Mann  and  Fowler  in  the  United  States,  were 
its  chief  exponents.  In  Germany  the  movement  soon  coa- 
lesced with  the  more  scientific  psychological  movement ;  in 
England  it  realized  itself  in  the  demand  for  scientific  educa- 
tion ;  while  in  the  persons  of  Fellenberg,  Combe  and  Mann,  in 
their  respective  countries,  it  revealed  its  practical  importance. 
As  the  "  science  of  mental  faculties"  it  was  an  extremely 
empirical  and  practical  psychology  that  appealed  to  many 
men  with  little  scientific  training. 

THE  PESTALOZZIAN  MOVEMENT.  Character  and  Signifi- 
cance of  his  Work.  —  It  must  be  understood  at  the  outset, 
that  much  more  is  included  under  this  subject  than  the  per- 
sonal work  and  influence  of  Pestalozzi ;  for  it  is  a  very  com- 
mon error  to  overestimate  the  importance  of  this  one  reformer 
in  the  history  of  education,  and  a  gross  exaggeration  to 
attribute  to  him  the  entire  educational  reform  movement  of 
the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  On  the  contrary, 
Pestalozzi  but  made  positive  and  concrete  the  negative  and 
general  educational  principles  enunciated  by  Rousseau;  and 


598  History  of  Education 

as  we  have  seen,  there  were  many  others,  notably  Basedow 
and  his  group,  who  were  successfully  engaged  in  the  same 
work.  Pestalozzi  himself  says  of  these :  "  Ignorant  and  im- 
practical as  I  was,  but  with  my  power  of  comprehension  and 
simplifying,  I  was  at  the  same  time  the  lowest  hedge  school- 
master and  also  reformer  of  instruction  —  and  this  in  an  age 
in  which,  since  the  epochs  of  Rousseau  and  Basedow,  half 
the  world  had  been  set  in  motion  for  this  purpose."  On  the 
other  hand,  the  ideas  and  practices  generally  grouped  under 
his  name  are  largely  due  to  the  work  of  his  assistants  and  of 
the  innumerable  teachers  of  succeeding  generations  who  have 
labored  along  the  lines  first  indicated  by  him.  No  one  has 
been  more  insistent  than  Pestalozzi  that  his  ideas  were  not 
realized  by  himself  or  by  his  assistants,  and  that  it  was  for 
the  future  to  work  them  out  in  reality.  He  it  was  who  first 
made  clear  and  forced  upon  the  public  the  position  that  the 
whole  problem  of  education  was  to  be  considered  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  developing  mind  of  the  child.  This 
view  was  not  wholly  original  with  him,  for  it  had  been  sug- 
gested by  others ;  but  he  first  made  the  schoolroom  world 
conscious  of  its  importance,  and  therein  lies  his  greatness. 
Around  him  centered  the  controversy  concerning  the  new 
point  of  view  of  method  in  education,  and  to  him  and  his  follow- 
ers was  due  the  initial  propaganda.  To  his  co-laborers  should 
be  credited  much  of  the  concrete  statement  of  the  new  ideas ; 
to  his  successors,  including  the  great  number  of  unnamed 
but  earnest  and  clear-sighted  teachers  everywhere,  is  due  the 
perfecting  of  them.  Later  educational  theorists,  especially 
the  two  considered  in  this  chapter,  possessing  all  of  the  prac- 
tical insight  of  Pestalozzi,  with  fuller  philosophical  penetration 
than  his,  together  with  broader  knowledge,  have  built  upon 
his  work  a  more  extensive  and  stable  structure  of  educational 
doctrine  than  could  the  Swiss  reformer. 

In  his  writing's  there  are  many  blunders,  — there  must  be 
some  for  there  are  many  contradictions;  and  the  man  who 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        599 

boasted  that  he  had  not  read  a  book  in  thirty  years,  in  an  age 
when  all  advance  in  thought  was  crystallized  in  literature, 
could  hardly  avoid  some  error.  His  practices  were  full  of 
absurdities,  —  how  otherwise  could  he  have  explained  the 
many  failures  in  the  application  of  ideas  held  to  be  the  only 
correct  ones?  The  desire  to  be  novel  at  every  point  in  the 
rejection  of  the  old  school  routine  led  to  many  mistakes  and 
eccentricities.  Von  Raumer,  the  historian  of  education  and  a 
student  in  the  Institute  at  Yverdun,  remarks :  "  The  source 
of  the  internal  contradiction  which  runs  through  the  life  of 
Pestalozzi  was,  as  we  have  seen  from  his  own  confessions,  the 
fact  that  in  spite  of  his  grand  ideal  which  comprehended 
the  whole  human  race,  he  did  not  possess  the  ability  and 
the  skill  requisite  for  conducting  the  smallest  village  school." 
But  no  one  has  been  more  just  than  Pestalozzi  himself  in 
recognizing  the  limitations  of  his  work,  in  realizing  that 
the  particular  form  which  he  gave  to  his  ideas  was  but  ten- 
tative, and  that  these  great  ideas  even  were  possessed  in 
rudimentary  form  only.  In  the  preface  to  his  work  on 
method,  written  twenty  years  after  the  appearance  of  the  first 
edition,  he  says :  "  If  these  letters  \_How  Gertrude  Teaches~\ 
may  be  considered  in  some  respects  as  already  answered  and 
partly  refuted  by  this  time,  and  thus  appear  to  belong  to  the 
past  rather  than  to  the  present,  yet  if  my  idea  of  elementary 
education  has  any  value  in  itself  and  is  fitted  to  survive 
in  the  future,  then  these  letters,  so  far  as  they  throw  light 
on  the  way  in  which  the  germ  of  the  idea  was  developed 
in  me,  may  have  a  living  value  for  every  man  who  considers 
the  psychological  development  of  educational  methods 
worthy  of  his  attention." 

The  point  made  emphatic  by  the  reformer  is  often  over- 
looked by  his  expositors  and  disciples.  The  significance  of 
our  study  of  Pestalozzi  in  connection  with  the  general  psy- 
chological tendency  in  education  is  not  in  the  finality  of  his 
views,  but  in  that  which  he  states,  —  that  here  we  may  see 


6oo  History  of  Education 

the  development  of  the  germs  of  modern  educational  ideas. 
Even  in  an  examination  of  the  practical  work  of  Pestalozzi 
it  is  evident  that  the  embodiment  of  his  ideas  was  very 
imperfect  and  his  success  in  their  formulation  only  par- 
tial. Here  again  we  may  listen  to  his  own  appreciation  of 
his  work  and  that  of  his  co-laborers.  Surveying  his  work  from 
near  the  close  of  his  life,  he  remarks  :  "  But  the  cry  '  We  can 
do  it,'  before  we  could ;  '  We  are  doing  it,'  before  we  did,  was 
too  loud,  too  distinct,  too  often  repeated,  partly  by  men  whose 
testimony  had  a  real  value  in  itself  and  deserved  attention. 
But  it  had  too  much  charm  for  us ;  we  made  more  of  it  than 
it  really  said  or  meant."  And  in  another  place  :  "  The  high- 
est attainment  (in  popular  education)  can  only  be  reached  by 
means  of  a  finished  art  of  teaching  and  a  most  perfect  psy- 
chology ;  thus  securing  the  utmost  perfection  in  the  mechan- 
ism of  the  natural  progression  from  confused  impressions  to 
intelligent  ideas ;  this  is  in  truth  far  beyond  my  powers." 

In  the  face,  then,  of  his  lack  of  any  philosophical  and  or- 
ganizing ability,  his  lack  of  accuracy,  of  consistency,  of  persist- 
ency, and  of  practical  success,  it  becomes  necessary  to  restate 
the  basis  of  his  importance  in  educational  history.  What  he 
did  do  was  to  emphasize  the  new  purpose  in  education,  but 
vaguely  perceived,  where  held  at  all,  by  others ;  to  make  clear 
the  new  meaning  of  education  which  existed  in  rather  a  nebu- 
lous state  in  the  public  mind ;  to  formulate  an  entirely  new 
method,  based  on  new  principles,  both  of  which  were  to  re- 
ceive a  further  development  in  subsequent  times,  and  to  pass 
under  his  name ;  and,  finally,  to  give  an  entirely  new  spirit  to 
the  schoolroom. 

The  significance  of  much  of  Pestalozzi's  work  was  that  it 
was  experimentation  now  substituted  for  tradition  as  a  basis 
for  educational  work.  Hence  its  value  lies,  not  in  any  particu- 
lar form  of  experiment,  but  in  the  final  results  attained ;  or, 
since  we  are  even  yet  far  from  finality,  in  principle  or  practice 
still  to  be  attained.  In  much,  then,  Pestalozzi  was  a  learner 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        6o\ 

rather  than  a  teacher.  "  My  views  of  the  subject,"  said  he, 
"  came  out  of  a  personal  striving  after  methods,  the  execution 
of  which  forced  me  actively  and  experimentally  to  seek,  to 
gain,  and  to  work  out  what  was  not  there,  and  what  as  yet  I 
really  knew  not."  Consequently,  more  than  in  the  case  of 
any  other  man  in  the  history  of  education,  it  is  necessary  to 
study  his  life  and  experience  in  order  to  understand  his  ideas, 
for  these  are  not  always  the  same,  but  develop.  They  are  the 
direct  outgrowth  of  the  experimental  life  which  he  led. 

Life  and  Works.  —  Heinrich  Pestalozzi  (1746-1827)  was 
raised  in  a  fatherless  family,  where  the  sympathy,  watchful 
care  and  loving  insight  of  a  mother  furnished  a  training  in 
place  of  that  which  might  have  come  from  the  more  masculine 
virtues  of  a  father  or  from  the  world  at  large,  and  gave  to 
him  his  purpose  of  introducing  into  the  school  the  ideal  of  home 
relationships  and  to  bring  about  the  improvement,  even  the 
regeneration,  of  the  masses  of  the  people.  As  he  said,  "  I  will 
put  skill  into  the  hand  of  the  mother,  into  the  hand  of  the 
child,  and  into  the  hand  of  the  innocent ;  and  the  scorner  shall 
say  no  more  [of  the  improvement  of  the  masses]  — '  It  is  a 
dream.'  " 

He  was  early  influenced  by  the  naturalistic  movement,  espe- 
cially by  the  Emile,  and  became  an  ardent  revolutionist,  as 
all  humanitarians  then  must  have  become.  Abandoning  in 
turn  his  preparation  for  the  ministry,  for  the  law  and  for 
public  service,  he  entered  finally  upon  an  agricultural  life, 
with  the  double  purpose  of  improving  a  waste  tract  of  land 
through  new  methods  of  cultivation  and  of  living  a  life  in  ac- 
cord with  the  prevalent  naturalistic  ideals.  Practical  success 
in  these  lines  he  failed  to  obtain ;  but  the  failure  gave  him 
an  opportunity  for  trying  an  experiment  even  nearer  his 
heart's  desire,  the  founding  of  a  philanthropic  institute  for 
destitute  children.  Meanwhile  he  had  been  experimenting 
in  the  attempt  to  bring  up  his  one  child  according  to  the 
ideas  of  the  Entile.  Experience  led  him  to  see  many  of  the 


602  History  of  Education 

deficiencies  as  well  as  the  excellencies  of  this  negative  treatise 
and  put  him  on  the  road  toward  his  life's  great  task,  in  the 
positive  formulation  of  these  ideas.  His  first  educational 
work,  entitled  A  Journal  of  a  Father,  —  one  of  the  earliest  ex- 
amples of  child  study, —  was  a  further  result  of  this  experience. 

The  philanthropic  venture  mentioned  above  was  an  educa- 
tional experiment  as  well,  for  it  was  but  an  application  of  the 
doctrine  advocated  by  the  naturalists,  that  the  character  of 
individuals  is  shaped  by  their  environment.  Reduce  this  to 
as  nearly  natural  conditions  as  possible,  they  held,  and  char- 
acter will  be  formed  or  developed.  So  Neuhof  became  a 
refuge  for  some  score  of  beggar  children,  or  children  of  poor 
parents  who  gave  them  no  care.  The  development  of  the 
factory  system  of  labor  had  already  begun  to  accentuate  the 
economic  division  of  the  people  and  to  produce  a  poverty- 
stricken  class,  whose  children  were  much  more  neglected 
than  those  of  the  peasantry  and  of  whom  no  care  was  taken 
save  by  the  poorhouses  or  charitable  institutions  that  but  in- 
creased the  moral  and  industrial  evils.  From  1775-1780  Pes- 
talozzi  conducted  what  was  probably  the  first  "  industrial 
school  for  the  poor."  The  children  were  engaged  in  raising 
special  farm  products,  in  spinning  and  weaving  of  cotton 
and  in  other  occupations.  While  so  engaged  they  also  spent 
some  time  in  reading  and  committing  passages  to  memory 
and  especially  in  arithmetical  exercises.  There  was  no  real 
connection  between  the  occupations  and  the  intellectual  ac- 
tivities, but  Pestalozzi  demonstrated  at  least  that  the  two 
could  go  on  together.  The  combined  functions  of  manager, 
farmer,  manufacturer,  merchant,  schoolmaster,  was  beyond 
the  ability  of  the  reformer.  This,  together  with  the  fact 
that  the  children  were  practically  the  refuse  of  society,  and 
that  their  parents  and  people  in  general  were  without  any 
appreciation  of  his  enterprise,  but  were  rather  hostile  to  it, 
led  to  its  abandonment. 

During  the  next  eighteen  years  Pestalozzi,  as  a  participant  in 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        603 

the  revolutionary  movement,  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  literary 
work.  For  nearly  two  years  he  served  as  editor  of  the  Swiss 
Popular  Gazette,  published  under  the  authority  of  the  Directory 
of  the  revolutionary  government,  and  intended  as  a  means  of 
extending  the  educational  and  political  propaganda  of  the  revo- 
lution. Throughout  these  years  from  1780-1798  Pestalozzi 
produced  many  articles,  some  on  social  reform  subjects,  but 
most  on  education.  The  fundamental  thought  of  all,  whether 
on  political  or  educational  subjects,  was  the  same ;  namely, 
that  social  and  political  reform  was  to  be  brought  about  by 
education  —  not  the  current  education,  but  a  new  education 
that  would  produce  a  moral  and  intellectual  reform  of  the 
people.  This,  now,  is  a  truth  complementary  to  the  partial  one 
upon  which  he  based  his  work  at  Neuhof.  The  earliest  one  of 
these  purely  educational  works  was  The  Evening  Hour  of  a 
Hermit,  published  in  1780.  This  consisted  of  one  hundred 
and  eighty  propositions  which  contain  the  germs  of  all  his 
later  more  concrete  work  combined  with  the  naturalistic 
doctrines  of  Rousseau.  Their  character  can  be  indicated  by 
a  selected  few. 

"  All  the  pure  and  beneficent  powers  of  humanity  are 
neither  the  products  of  art  nor  the  results  of  chance.  They 
are  really  a  natural  possession  of  every  man.  Their  develop- 
ment is  a  universal  human  need."  "  The  path  of  nature, 
which  develops  the  forces  of  humanity,  must  be  easy  and 
open  to  all;  education,  which  brings  true  wisdom  and  peace 
of  mind,  must  be  simple  and  within  everybody's  reach." 
"  Nature  develops  all  the  forces  of  humanity  by  exercising 
them;  they  increase  with  use."  "The  exercise  of  a  man's 
faculties  and  talents,  to  be  profitable,  must  follow  the  course 
laid  down  by  nature  for  the  education  of  humanity."  "  This 
is  why  the  man,  who,  in  simplicity  and  innocence,  exercises 
his  forces  and  faculties  with  order,  calmness,  and  steady 
application,  is  naturally  led  to  true  human  wisdom ;  whereas, 
he  who  subverts  the  order  of  nature,  and  thus  breaks  the 
due  connection  between  the  different  branches  of  his  knowl- 
edge, destroys  in  himself  not  only  the  true  basis  of  knowledge, 


604  History  of  Education 

but  the  very  need  of  such  a  basis,  and  becomes  incapable  of 
appreciating  the  advantages  of  truth."  "When  men  are 
anxious  to  go  too  fast,  and  are  not  satisfied  with  nature's 
development,  they  imperil  their  inward  strength,  and  destroy 
the  harmony  and  peace  of  their  souls."  "  When  men  rush 
into  the  labyrinth  of  words,  formulas,  and  opinions,  without 
having  gained  a  progressive  knowledge  of  the  realities  of  life, 
their  minds  must  develop  on  this  one  basis,  and  can  have 
no  other  source  of  strength." 


The  most  popular  of  all  his  writings,  the  one  that  exerted 
the  most  influence,  was  his  Leonard  and  Gertrude,  the  first 
volume  of  which  was  published  in  1781.  Written  as  a  novel, 
it  popularized  the  idea  that  he  initiated  in  practical  reform 
a  generation  later.  This  new  education  was  to  consist  in  a 
moral  and  intellectual  development  of  the  child  and,  in  turn, 
was  to  produce  a  similar  reform  in  society  at  large.  The 
purpose  of  the  book  was  to  depict  the  simple  village  life 
of  the  people  and  the  great  changes  caused  therein  by  the 
insight  and  devotion  of  a  single  ignorant  woman,  Gertrude. 
By  her  industry  and  patience  and  skill  in  educating  their 
children  she  saves  her  husband,  Leonard,  from  idleness  and 
drink.  Neighbors,  children,  and  neighboring  families  are 
finally  brought  within  the  influence  of  the  new  ideas ;  and  by 
the  simple  methods  of  this  peasant  woman  this  new  purpose 
in  education  effects  the  reform  of  the  entire  village.  What 
was  done  in  Bonal,  Pestalozzi  held  could  be  done  in  every 
village.  This  was  his  mission  in  life :  to  work  out  in  detail 
the  methods  of  this  education  that  was  to  effect  the  regenera- 
tion of  society  by  securing  for  every  child  that  moral  and 
intellectual  development  which  was  his  natural  right  and  inher- 
itance. Written  as  a  "  book  for  the  people  "  it  failed,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  in  reaching  the  ignorant  masses ;  and  the 
three  succeeding  volumes,  designed  to  give  the  reading  public, 
reached  by  the  first,  a  more  detailed  knowledge  of  the  new 
education,  failed  to  interest  it  at  all.  In  reading  this  simple 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        605 

tale  it  is  difficult  for  one  now  to  understand  its  popularity  and 
influence.  But  coming  in  a  period  of  romanticism,  it  appealed 
to  the  popular  fancy,  and  in  a  period  of  social  agitation  it 
appealed  to  the  enthusiasm  and  hopes  of  the  thinking  classes. 
Were  it  not  for  the  germs  of  the  great  movement  contained 
therein,  it  would  survive  now  only  as  a  juvenile  moral  tale. 

While  there  were  many  other  educational  treatises  pro- 
duced by  him  during  this  period,  but  one  can  be  noted  here. 
That  is  his  Researches  into  the  Course  of  Nature  in  the  Devel- 
opment of  the  Human  Race.  Into  this  brief  treatise  Pestalozzi 
put  three  years'  labor  in  the  endeavor  to  give  a  philosophical 
formulation  to  his  own  ideas,  which  at  that  time  were  but  a 
restatement  of  Rousseau's  theses.  As  he  possessed  neither 
the  philosophical  insight  to  state  the  logic  of  his  own  ideas 
or  practices,  nor  the  literary  skill  to  improve  upon  Rousseau, 
he  was  in  this  unsuccessful. 

In  1798  there  occurred  a  complete  change  in  Pestalozzi's 
career.  Hitherto  he,  like  others,  had  been  theorizing  about 
the  new  education,  concerning  which  he  knew  little  con- 
cretely, and  criticising  the  old  —  the  evils  of  which  were 
patent  on  every  side.  He  announces,  as  if  by  inspiration, 
"  I  will  turn  schoolmaster  "  ;  for  he  at  length  realized  that 
the  way  to  establish  education  as  the  means  to  social  reform 
was  to  demonstrate  in  a  practical  way  its  efficiency.  No 
more  remarkable  testimony  concerning  the  value  and  the 
validity  of  his  fundamental  educational  ideas  can  be  found 
than  that  this  man  who  did  not  begin  to  teach  until  after 
fifty  years  of  age  and  who,  from  the  practical  point  of  view, 
failed  in  every  enterprise  he  undertook  in  his  long  life, 
should,  after  all,  have  had  more  influence  than  any  other  one 
person  in  the  educational  improvement  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. One  chief  reason  for  this  was  that  his  ideas  were  the 
results  of  experimentation.  Consequently  the  truths  reached 
were  not  completed  and  closed  formulas,  but  rather  sugges- 
tions for  the  guidance  of  the  work  of  education,  which,  since 


6o6  History  of  Education 

the  concrete  personal  elements  to  be  dealt  with  are  nevei 
fully  determinable  in  advance,  must  always  partake  somewhat 
of  the  nature  of  experimentation.  Where,  as  it  readily  could, 
the  Pestalozzian  influence  realized  itself  in  the  imposition  of 
fixed  formulas  of  procedure,  there  the  least  benefit  resulted. 
Where  spirit  and  purpose  prevailed,  it  became  the  germ  of 
the  broader  educational  thought  and  more  intelligent  practice 
of  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  But  even  if 
credit  be  given  to  Pestalozzi  only  for  this  more  restricted 
influence,  it  is  something  to  have  established  scientific  experi- 
mentation, rather  than  mere  theorizing  or  mere  empiricism, 
as  the  source  of  educational  truths. 

In  the  year  mentioned,  Pestalozzi's  connection  with  the  gov- 
ernment publication  having  ceased,  he  accepted  the  charge  of 
those  children  in  one  of  the  districts  of  Switzerland  made 
orphans  through  the  massacre  of  the  people  by  the  French 
soldiery.  With  these  orphans  at  Stanz  were  first  worked  out  the 
germs  of  the  new  educational  practices.  Here  again,  as  in  the 
case  of  his  earlier  experience,  his  fundamental  purpose  was  to 
combine  educational  activities  with  handwork.  But  now  he 
saw  not  only  that  the  two  could  be  carried  on  together,  but  that, 
if  an  approach  differing  from  that  of  the  ordinary  schoolroom 
was  made,  much  of  the  experience  that  was  most  valuable  for 
mental  development  came  directly  from  those  activities  in 
which  the  children  were  immediately  interested.  Pestalozzi's 
own  statement  of  this  work  is  full  of  the  meaning  of  the  new 
truth.  "  Here  is  the  principle  upon  which  I  acted  :  Seek 
first  to  open  the  heart  of  the  children,  and,  by  satisfying 
their  daily  needs,  mingle  love  and  benevolence  with  all  their 
impressions,  experience,  and  activity,  so  as  to  develop  these 
sentiments  in  their  hearts ;  then  to  accustom  them  to  knowl- 
edge in  order  that  they  may  know  how  to  employ  their 
benevolence  usefully  and  surely  in  the  circle  around  them." 
In  this,  as  in  all  of  Pestalozzi's  later  work,  we  find  the  key  to 
his  educational  influence,  —  the  essential  to  reform  is  a  new 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        607 

method  and  new  spirit  in  all  educational  works.     The  for 
tunes  of  war  terminated  this  experiment  in  less  than  a  year. 

In  the  following  year  Pestalozzi,  now  a  discredited  vision- 
ary,  was  accepted  as  assistant  teacher  in  the  village  school  at 
Burgdorf.  In  the  elementary  school  of  this  village,  Pesta- 
lozzi taught  for  more  than  a  year  with  slight  satisfaction  to 
the  villagers,  who  saw  little  commendable  in  his  rather 
erratic  innovations.  But  for  the  cause  of  educational  reform 
this  brief  experience  was  fraught  with  great  importance,  for 
here  was  first  worked  out  the  significance  of  the  object  lesson, 
not  as  a  mere  means  of  gaining  knowledge  of  the  word,  or 
even  of  the  thing,  as  with  Comenius  and  earlier  reformers, 
but  as  a  means  of  mental  development.  Here  Pestalozzi 
first  announced  his  great  aim,  "  I  wish  to  psychologize  edu- 
cation." The  recognition  that  the  public  failed  to  give  was 
furnished  by  some  friends  among  the  progressive  officials  of 
revolutionary  and  hence  philanthropic  bent,  and  by  some 
schoolmasters,  appreciative  of  the  great  significance  of  these 
new  ideas,  who  now  attached  themselves  as  assistants.  To 
these  Pestalozzi  owed  the  avoidance  of  complete  failure  and 
the  educational  world  the  carrying  to  a  successful  issue  of 
this  first  stage  in  modern  educational  reform.  A  private 
school,  partially  endowed  by  the  government,  was  estab- 
lished, where  for  some  four  years  experimentation,  both  with 
the  pupils  and  teachers  along  the  line  of  the  new  thought, 
continued. 

The  great  purpose  now  clearly  held  before  him  was  to  an- 
swer the  fundamental  educational  question  which  was  a  chal 
lenge  to  the  existing  education  respecting  its  purpose  and  its 
means.  These  inquiries  were  to  determine  what  knowledge 
and  what  practical  abilities  were  necessary  for  the  child,  and 
how  they  could  be  furnished  to  the  child  or  obtained  by 
him.  This  period  produced  Pestalozzi's  most  systematic  work 
—  How  Gertrude  Teaches  her  Children  (1801)  —  which  was 
an  attempt  to  answer  the  above  questions.  At  least  it  is  the 


6o8  History  of  Education 

most  definite  answer  Pestalozzi  himself  gives  to  these  ques- 
tions. But  its  value  lies  more  in  its  suggestiveness  and  in 
its  indication  of  the  fundamental  problems  with  which  the 
author  was  struggling  than  in  the  specific  answers  it  furnishes 
to  the  questions  raised.  This  work  at  Burgdorf,  directed 
both  toward  the  education  of  the  children  and  the  training 
of  teachers,  was  watched  with  great  interest  by  publicists  and 
philanthropists,  was  assisted  by  the  government,  and  was 
widely  discussed  through  pamphlet  and  magazine  contro* 
versy.  But  again  withdrawal  of  the  meager  though  neces- 
sary support,  on  account  of  political  changes,  together  with 
disagreement  among  the  directors  of  the  institute  themselves, 
led  to  its  abandonment,  and  Pestalozzi  withdrew  to  Yverdun 
for  his  last  and  longest  experiment. 

Among  this  French-speaking  people,  with  whom  he 
believed  his  reform  would  make  more  rapid  headway, 
Pestalozzi  labored  for  twenty  years.  Here,  more  than  hith- 
erto, the  work  was  directed  toward  the  training  of  teachers 
and  direct  experimentation  in  reforming  educational  practices. 
Text-books  were  compiled,  numerous  explanatory  and  contro- 
versial articles  were  published,  students  were  trained  for  vari- 
ous European  countries,  and  visitors  were  welcomed  from 
almost  every  civilized  people.  The  object  of  the  work  was 
a  further  definition  of  the  problems  raised  at  Burgdorf  and 
the  propagation  of  these  school  reforms.  But  the  task  of 
managing  the  institute,  not  to  mention  that  of  conducting  a 
world  reform,  was  too  great  for  the  old  enthusiast,  who  was 
past  sixty  before  the  institute  was  founded  and  who  never 
possessed  the  ability  for  practical  management.  The  imprac- 
ticability of  the  founder,  together  with  the  dissensions,  both 
private  and  public,  of  his  assistants,  did  much  to  discredit 
his  work  of  reform,  and  render  it  profitless  to  study  his 
life  further  in  detail. 

Influence  of  Pestalozzi  on  Education,  (a)  As  to  Purpose.  — 
Throughout  his  long  life  Pestalozzi  was  moved  by  a  con  vie- 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        609 

tion  that  we  have  found  to  be  common  to  most  educational 
reformers  since  the  early  Renaissance ;  namely,  that  education 
is  to  become  the  chief  means  to  social  reform.  This  idea,  how- 
ever, possessed  a  peculiar  significance  during  the  latter  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  since  that  was  a  period  in  which 
the  greatest  variety  of  remedies  for  social  evils  were  advo- 
cated. New  religions,  no  religions;  new  governments,  no 
governments ;  new  societies,  no  society  —  all  were  suggested. 
Socialism,  anarchism,  communism,  pure  individualism,  atheism, 
deism,  naturalism  —  all  found  their  advocates.  Every  form  of 
Utopia  found  its  devotee,  while  the  practical  means  chosen 
by  all  was  revolution.  Throughout  all  this  period  of  turmoil, 
especially  during  the  period  of  his  literary  activity,  the  voice 
of  Pestalozzi  in  suggesting  education  —  a  new  education  —  as 
the  means  for  social  regeneration  became  clearer  and  clearer. 
Few  among  those  that  in  previous  periods  had  held  edu- 
cation to  be  the  means  for  social  regeneration  had  considered 
that  it  was  necessary  for  the  masses.  Such  as  had,  were 
chiefly  the  Reformation  leaders,  who  viewed  the  entire  subject 
from  the  religious  point  of  view.  Even  those,  such  as  Come- 
nius,  who  took  a  broader  point  of  view  and  held  that  the 
education  of  the  masses  in  every  phase  of  knowledge  was 
desirable  from  reasons  other  than  the  purely  religious,  were 
far  from  the  thought  of  Pestalozzi.  The  latter  had  in  view 
an  entirely  different  conception  of  education  —  one  that 
had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  comprehensive  encyclo- 
pedism  of  Comenius,  but  that  related  solely  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  child's  nature,  mental,  moral,  physical.  In  other 
words,  what  Rousseau  had  demanded  in  a  theoretic  way, 
for  one  individual,  Emile,  Pestalozzi  demanded  for  every 
child,  no  matter  how  poor  and  humble  his  surroundings  or 
how  limited  his  capacities.  Hence  Pestalozzi's  demand  for 
universal  education  of  the  masses  possesses  an  entirely 
new  significance,  —  a  significance  only  grasped  when  one 
conceives  the  difference  between  the  old  conception  of  educa- 


6io  History  of  Education 

tion  and  that  which  he  held.  The  peculiar  turn  which  Pesta- 
lozzi  gave  to  Rousseau's  doctrine  concerning  the  detrimental 
influence  of  the  arts  and  sciences  was  that  through  their  iden- 
tification with  education,  popular  education  comes  to  be  a 
mere  form  without  any  resulting  benefits  for  the  masses, 
while  the  learned  classes  grow  into  greater  knowledge,  power, 
and  indifference  to  the  needs  of  the  masses.  In  his  How 
Gertrude  Teaches  he  says  :  — 

"  Europe,  with  its  system  of  popular  teaching,  has  fallen 
into  error,  or  rather  it  has  lost  its  way.  On  one  side  it  has 
risen  to  an  immense  height  in  the  sciences  and  arts ;  on  the 
other  it  has  lost  the  whole  foundation  of  natural  culture  for 
the  bulk  of  the  people.  No  part  of  the  world  has  risen  so 
high ;  no  part  has  sunk  so  low.  Our  continent  resembles 
the  great  image  mentioned  by  the  prophet ;  its  golden  head 
touches  the  clouds,  but  popular  instruction,  which  should  bear 
this  head,  is  like  the  feet  of  clay.  In  Europe  the  culture  of 
the  people  has  become  vain  babbling,  as  fatal  to  faith  as  to 
true  knowledge ;  an  instruction  of  mere  words  which  contains 
a  little  dreaming  and  show  which  cannot  give  us  the  calm  wis- 
dom of  faith  and  love,  but,  on  the  contrary,  lead  to  unbelief 
and  superstition,  to  selfishness  and  hardness.  It  is  indispu- 
table that  the  mania  for  words  and  books,  which  has  absorbed 
everything  in  our  popular  instruction,  has  been  carried  so  far 
that  we  cannot  possibly  remain  long  as  we  are.  Everything 
convinces  me  that  the  only  means  of  preserving  us  from  re- 
maining at  a  civil,  moral,  and  religious  dead  level  is  to  aban- 
don the  superficiality,  the  piecemeal,  and  infatuation  of  our 
popular  instruction,  and  to  recognize  intuition  as  the  true 
fountain  of  knowledge." 

(6)  The  New  Meaning  of  Education,  —  In  defining  the  new 
conception  Pestalozzi  started,  as  did  Rousseau,  with  the  con- 
trast between  the  accepted  educational  usages  and  the  natural 
development  of  the  child.  Speaking  of  children  in  their  early 
years  he  says  :  — 

"  Their  power  and  their  experience  both  are  great  at  this 
age  ;  but  our  unpsychological  schools  are  essentially  only  arti- 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        6 1 1 

ficial  stifling  machines  for  destroying  all  the  results  of  the 
power  and  experience  that  nature  herself  brings  to  life  in 
them.  You  know  it,  my  friend.  But  for  a  moment  picture 
to  yourself  the  horror  of  this  murder.  We  leave  children  up 
to  their  fifth  year  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  nature  ;  we  let  every 
impression  of  nature  work  upon  them  ;  they  feel  their  power ; 
they  already  know  full  well  the  joy  of  unrestrained  liberty  and 
all  its  charms.  The  free  natural  bent  which  the  sensuous 
happy  wild  thing  takes  in  his  development  has  in  them  al- 
ready taken  its  most  decided  direction.  And  after  they  have 
enjoyed  this  happiness  of  sensuous  life  for  five  whole  years, 
we  make  all  nature  round  them  vanish  before  their  eyes; 
tyrannically  stop  the  delightful  course  of  their  unrestrained 
freedom ;  pen  them  up  like  sheep,  whole  flocks  huddled  to- 
gether in  stinking  rooms ;  pitilessly  chain  them  for  hours, 
days,  weeks,  months,  years,  to  the  contemplation  of  unnatural 
and  unattractive  letters,  and,  contrasted  with  their  former  con- 
dition, to  a  maddening  course  of  life." 

The  connection  between  nature,  education,  and  instruction 
is  yet  more  clearly  indicated  in  the  following :  — 

"  Whatever,  therefore,  man  may  attempt  to  do  by  his  tuition, 
he  can  do  no  more  than  assist  in  the  effort  which  the  child 
makes  for  his  own  development.  To  do  this  so  that  the  im- 
pressions made  upon  him  may  always  be  commensurate  to  the 
growth  and  character  of  the  faculties  already  unfolded,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  in  harmony  with  them,  is  the  great  secret 
of  education.  The  knowledge  to  which  the  child  is  to  be  led 
by  instruction  must,  therefore,  necessarily  be  subjected  to  a 
certain  order  of  succession,  the  beginning  of  which  must  be 
adapted  to  the  first  unfolding  of  his  powers,  and  the  progress 
kept  exactly  parallel  to  that  of  his  development." 

Or  again :  — 

"  Sound  education  stands  before  me  symbolized  by  a  tree 
planted  near  fertilizing  waters.  A  little  seed,  which  contains 
the  design  of  the  tree,  its  form  and  its  properties,  is  placed  in 
the  soil.  The  whole  tree  is  an  uninterrupted  chain  of  organic 
parts,  the  plan  of  which  existed  in  its  seed  and  root.  Man  is 
similar  to  the  tree.  In  the  new-born  child  are  hidden  those 


612  History  of  Education 

faculties  which  are  to  unfold  during  life.  The  individual  and 
separate  organs  of  his  being  form  themselves  gradually  into 
unison,  and  build  up  humanity  in  the  image  of  God.  The 
education  of  man  is  a  purely  moral  result.  It  is  not  the  educa- 
tor who  puts  new  powers  and  faculties  into  man,  and  imparts 
to  him  breath  and  life.  He  only  takes  care  that  no  untoward 
influence  shall  disturb  nature's  march  of  development.  The 
moral,  intellectual,  and  practical  powers  of  man  must  be  nur- 
tured within  himself  and  not  from  artificial  substitutes.  Thus, 
faith  must  be  cultivated  by  our  own  act  of  believing,  not  by 
reasoning  about  faith ;  love,  by  our  own  act  of  loving,  not  by 
fine  words  about  love ;  thought,  by  our  own  act  of  thinking, 
not  by  merely  appropriating  the  thoughts  of  other  men ;  and 
knowledge,  by  our  own  investigation,  not  by  endless  talk  about 
the  results  of  art  and  science." 


These  somewhat  extended  quotations  give  Pestalozzi's  con- 
ception of  education  more  clearly  than  would  a  similar  amount 
of  exposition.  Education  is  but  the  organic  development  of 
the  individual,  —  mental,  moral,  physical.  This  development 
comes  in  each  of  these  phases  by  doing,  through  activities  initi- 
ated by  spontaneous  desire  for  action,  which  leads  to  growth, 
and  along  lines  predetermined  by  the  nature  of  the  organism, — 
the  child.  It  does  not  come  by  forms  of  procedure  established 
by  custom.  To  quote  the  definition  in  its  more  traditional 
form,  education  is  the  natural,  progressive,  harmonious  de- 
velopment of  all  the  powers  and  faculties  of  the  human  being. 

Starting  from  the  new  purpose  that  Pestalozzi  gave  to  edu 
cation,  the  elevation  of  the  common  people  from  their  igno- 
rance, squalor,  and  misery,  he  was  compelled  to  give  to  it  a 
new  meaning.  His  early  experiences  taught  him  that  their 
material  degradation  could  not  be  removed  save  by  the 
removal  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  poverty  and  depravity. 
The  removal  of  this,  or  rather  the  growth  of  the  individuals 
composing  the  submerged  portion  of  humanity  into  the  moral 
and  intellectual  maturity  for  which  they  as  well  as  the  chosen 
few  were  destined,  constituted  education.  He  found  in  each 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        613 

individual  the  germs  of  all  the  powers,  sentiments,  faculties, 
aptitudes  that  were  needed  for  their  successful,  satisfactory, 
and  useful  participation  in  their  walks  of  life  and  in  the  satis- 
faction of  the  needs  of  society.  Directed,  as  it  was,  toward 
giving  the  child  possession  of  forms  or  of  merely  acquainting 
him  with  them,  — forms  of  religious  thought  through  the  cate- 
chism, forms  of  thought  through  the  mere  ability  to  read  words, 
forms  of  practical  or  scientific  procedure  through  the  mere 
memoriter  knowledge  of  mathematics,  or  the  forms  of  culture 
through  the  dead  languages,  —  the  existing  education  did  not 
accomplish  this  adjustment.  Real  education  was  to  do  none 
of  this,  but  something  infinitely  greater :  to  develop  in  the  child 
the  elements  of  power  implanted  there  by  nature,  by  furnishing 
to  him  in  appropriately  selected  and  graded  series  the  mate- 
rials of  experience  needed  as  a  basis  for  the  natural  exercise 
of  these  capacities.  The  novelty  of  all  this  was  not  in  the 
new  conception  of  the  nature  and  powers  of  man,  their 
development  and  manner  of  action,  but  in  the  application  of 
this  to  education,  —  or  more  distinctively,  —  to  the  school- 
room. The  school-teacher  has  to  deal  with  these  powers  of 
action  directly  and  his  function  is  to  furnish  appropriate 
means  and  material  for  activity.  Pestalozzi's  insistence  that 
there  was  a  natural  order  in  the  development  of  the  child's 
mind  and  that  all  educational  activity  should  be  based  upon 
or  guided  by  the  knowledge  of  that  growth,  is  not  a  preten- 
sion to  the  accurate  knowledge  of  those  laws  of  the  mind's 
activity  and  development.  That  degree  of  finality  was  only 
claimed  for  him  by  his  disciples  of  a  later  generation.  But 
his  is  the  honor  of  having  first  insisted  upon  the  necessity  of 
this  knowledge  as  a  basis  for  instruction,  a  view  which  later 
generations  have  accepted  in  their  continued  endeavor  to 
increase  this  knowledge  which  the  great  reformer  sought. 
This  general  idea  of  growth  and  of  organic  development 
through  activity  had  been  formulated  by  Lamarck  into  a 
general  philosophy  or  scientific  hypothesis,  and  had  received 


6 14  History  of  Education 

many  special  applications.  It  was  Pestalozzi's  work  to  appl) 
it  to  the  schoolroom,  and  to  attempt  to  organize  activities 
appropriate  both  to  intellectual  and  to  moral  development. 
It  is  in  this  work,  then,  a  work  specifically  related  to  method, 
that  Pestalozzi  exerted  his  greatest  influence,  and  it  is  in  this 
connection  that  he  merits  the  greatest  praise. 

(c)  Influence  on  Educational  Means  and  Method.  —  The 
significance  of  the  Pestalozzian  reform  in  method  can  be  ap- 
preciated only  when  the  character  of  the  contemporary  school- 
room is  kept  in  mind.  In  the  village  school  in  Burgdorf, 
where  Pestalozzi  was  barely  tolerated,  even  for  a  few  months, 
as  assistant,  the  master  was  the  ignorant  village  shoemaker, 
who  "kept"  school  in  his  shop  and  cobbled  meanwhile. 
Kruesi,  Pestalozzi's  ablest  assistant,  gives  this  account  of  his 
first  appointment  as  teacher,  an  office  for  which  he  had  no 
preparation,  though,  as  later  experience  showed,  one  for 
which  he  possessed  great  natural  aptitude  :  — 

"The  day  of  examination  arrived.  One  candidate,  older 
than  myself,  exhibited  his  learning.  He  was  ordered  to  read 
the  first  chapter  of  the  New  Testament  and  write  some  lines, 
—  a  task  which  took  him  half  an  hour  to  perform.  I  was 
called  in.  The  examiner  placed  before  me  a  genealogical 
table  from  Adam  to  Abraham,  as  a  reading  exercise.  He 
then  handed  me  an  unmended  quill  pen,  desiring  me  to  write 
something.  '  But  what  shall  I  write  ? '  said  I.  '  Write  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  or  whatever  you  like,'  was  the  reply.  As  I 
had  no  knowledge,  either  of  parts  of  speech  or  orthography, 
or  of  punctuation  [he  explained  elsewhere  that  he  scattered 
capital  letters  at  equal  distances  thinking  they  were  for  orna- 
ment], the  result  of  my  scribbling  may  be  imagined.  This 
was  all  the  examination,  and  after  it  we  retired.  When  we 
were  recalled,  the  chairman  informed  us  that  neither  had 
been  found  overburdened  with  learning ;  that  one  of  us  was 
better  in  reading,  the  other  in  writing ;  but,  that  since  my 
rival  was  already  forty  years  old,  while  I  was  only  eighteen, 
they  thought  I  would  sooner  acquire  the  necessary  knowledge. 
Moreover,  since  my  dwelling  [the  town  had  no  schoolhouse] 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        615 

was  better  adapted  for  a  school  than  that  of  my  competitor,  they 
had  appointed  me  schoolmaster.  No  doubt  I  felt  happy  at 
this  unexpected  decision,  though  I  had  no  reason  to  be  very 
proud  of  my  salary,  which  was  only  one  dollar  per  week, 
while  my  vanquished  opponent  was  appointed  policeman, 
with  one  and  a  half  dollars  per  week." 

So,  we  find  the  village  watchman,  the  bricklayer,  the  rope 
maker,  the  crippled  soldier,  the  widow,  or  any  one  whose 
occupation  did  not  consume  all  his  time  or  furnish  him  with 
complete  living,  was  chosen  as  schoolmaster.  More  fre- 
quently the  convenient  house  which  they  occupied  was  of 
greater  importance  than  their  qualification  as  teachers. 
When  one  turns  to  the  character  of  the  work  of  the  school, 
the  reasons  for  this  can  be  readily  understood.  The  work  of 
the  two  schools  mentioned  above,  and,  with  possible  slight 
alterations,  that  of  all  the  regions  around,  consisted  of  a 
primer  (spelling  and  name  book),  a  reader  (the  beginnings 
of  Christian  doctrine),  the  Heidelberg  catechism  and  the 
Psalter.  Besides  learning  to  read,  that  is,  the  mere  ability  to 
recognize  forms  of  words,  the  work  of  the  school  was  pure 
memorizing  of  theological  or  religious  texts.  This  constituted 
both  moral  and  religious  education.  The  method  in  which 
this  work  was  done  is  thus  described  by  Diesterweg :  — 

"  Each  child  read  by  himself ;  the  simultaneous  method 
was  not  known.  One  after  another  stepped  up  to  the  table 
where  the  master  sat.  He  pointed  out  one  letter  at  a  time, 
and  named  it;  the  child  named  it  after  him  ;  he  drilled  him 
in  recognizing  and  remembering  each.  They  then  took  letter 
by  letter  of  the  words,  and  by  getting  acquainted  with  them 
in  this  way,  the  child  gradually  learned  to  read.  This  was  a 
difficult  method  for  him,  a  very  difficult  one.  Years  usually 
passed  before  any  facility  had  been  acquired ;  many  did  not 
learn  in  four  years.  It  was  imitative  and  purely  mechanical 
labor  on  both  sides.  To  understand  what  was  read  was  seldom 
thought  of  The  syllables  were  pronounced  with  equal  force, 
and  the  reading  was  without  grace  or  expression.  Where 
it  was  possible,  but  unnaturally  and  mechanically,  learning 


616  History  of  Education 

by  heart  was  practiced.  The  children  drawled  out  texts  of 
Scripture,  Psalms,  and  the  contents  of  the  catechism  from  the 
beginning  to  end ;  short  questions  and  long  answers  alike,  all 
in  the  same  monotonous  manner.  Anybody  with  delicate 
ears  who  heard  the  sound  once  would  remember  it  all  his 
life  long.  There  are  people  yet  living,  who  were  taught  in 
that  unintelligent  way,  who  can  corroborate  these  statements. 
Of  the  actual  contents  of  the  words  whose  sounds  they  had 
thus  barely  committed  to  memory  little  by  little,  the  children 
knew  absolutely  almost  nothing.  They  learned  superficially 
and  understood  superficially.  Nothing  really  passed  into  their 
minds ;  at  least  nothing  during  their  school  years.  The  in- 
struction in  singing  was  no  better.  The  master  sang  to  them 
the  psalm  tunes  over  and  over,  until  they  could  sing  them,  or 
rather  screech  them,  after  him.  Such  was  the  condition  of 
instruction  in  our  schools  during  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth, 
and  two  thirds  of  the  eighteenth  centuries ;  confined  to  one 
or  two  studies,  and  those  taught  in  the  most  imperfect  and 
mechanical  way." 

This,  in  Pestalozzi's  view,  was  not  education  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word.  "  A  man  who  has  only  word  wisdom  is 
less  susceptible  to  truth  than  a  savage.  This  use  of  mere 
words  produces  men  who  believe  they  have  reached  the  goal, 
because  their  whole  life  has  been  spent  in  talking  about  it, 
but  who  never  ran  toward  it,  because  no  motive  impelled 
them  to  make  the  effort ;  hence  I  come  to  the  conviction 
that  the  fundamental  error  —  the  blind  use  of  words  in  mat- 
ters of  instruction  —  must  be  extirpated  before  it  is  possible 
to  resuscitate  life  with  truth." 

This  condemnation  of  the  existing  school  work  forms  the 
most  often  repeated  idea  in  Pestalozzi's  writings,  and  if  he  had 
accomplished  nothing  but  the  negative  destructive  work,  he 
would  hold  an  important  place  in  the  history  of  schools. 
While  this  was  the  character  of  the  schools  of  Switzerland  and 
of  Germany,  those  of  other  countries  were  no  better,  if  as  good. 
That  such  was  the  condition  of  the  average  district  school  in 
the  United  States  well  into  the  nineteenth  century  and  of  the 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        617 

average  elementary  school  in  England  much  later  is  weh 
known. 

The  character  of  the  school  which  Pestalozzi  would  substi- 
tute for  this  has  been  indicated.  The  school  was  to  be  a 
transformed  home,  approximating  the  same  relationships, 
duplicating  the  same  spirit,  seeking  the  same  ends;  that  is, 
the  moral  and  intellectual  development  and  the  material 
betterment  of  the  child.  It  is  the  peculiar  excellence  of 
Pestalozzi  that  he  was  the  first  to  make  great  progress  in 
indicating  the  practical  way  in  which  these  new  educational 
ideas  could  be  realized.  But  in  seeking  the  essentials  of  this 
new  method,  we  must  clearly  distinguish  between  the  prin- 
ciples fundamental  to  the  new  practices  and  the  particular 
form,  often  crude  and  experimental,  sometimes  erroneous  or 
absurd,  which  was  given  to  these  principles  in  the  early 
gropings  of  Pestalozzi  and  his  assistants. 

The  essential  thought  of  the  Pestalozzian  method  is  com- 
paratively simple.  It  is  based  on  the  fundamental  conception 
of  what  education  is  ;  namely,  the  continuous  development  of 
the  mind  through  appropriate  exercise  so  selected  that  there 
will  result  a  harmonious  and  progressive  functioning  of  the 
mind  in  all  its  capacities  of  action  or  expression.  The 
result  at  any  stage  should  be  a  symmetrical  and  complete  or- 
ganic life.  The  fundamental  endeavor  was  to  analyze  knowl- 
edge in  any  particular  line  into  its  simplest  elements,  as  these 
present  themselves  naturally  to  the  attention  of  the  child. 
These  were  to  be  acquired  not  simply  in  their  form,  but  in  their 
real  inner  meaning  by  the  process  of  observation,  or  sense 
impression  (intuition,  it  was  often  called),  and  developed  by  a 
progressive  series  of  exercises  graded  by  almost  imperceptible 
degrees  into  a  continuous  chain.  Such  exercises  were  to  be 
based  primarily  upon  the  study  of  objects  rather  than  upon 
the  study  of  words.  The  object  lesson,  then,  was  the  core 
of  the  method;  but  the  object  lesson  not  as  often  employed  for 
the  mere  purpose  of  obtaining  a  knowledge  of  the  object,  or 


6i8  History  of  Education 

even  of  developing  powers  of  observation.  Its  real  use  was  as 
a  basis  for  the  entire  mental  development  of  the  child.  This 
training  in  observation  was  the  beginning  only. 

"Meanwhile,"  he  says,  "the  consciousness  began  daily  to 
develop  in  me  that  it  must  be  absolutely  impossible  to  remedy 
school  evils  as  a  whole  if  one  cannot  succeed  in  reducing 
the  mechanical  formulas  of  instruction  to  those  eternal  laws, 
according  to  which  the  human  mind  rises  from  mere  sense 
impressions  to  clear  ideas.  The  child  learns — that  is,  de- 
velops mentally  —  through  his  own  activities,  and  only 
through  impressions,  experiences,  not  through  words  ;  though, 
to  be  sure,  these  experiences  must  be  clearly  expressed  in 
words,  or  otherwise  there  arises  the  same  danger  that  char- 
acterizes the  dominant  word  teaching,  —  that  of  attributing 
entirely  erroneous  ideas  to  words." 

In  their  purpose  and  spirit  at  least,  these  are  the  essentials 
that  have  entered  into  all  subsequent  educational  reform.  The 
particular  form  is  incidental  and  has  been  vastly  improved  since 
these  earlier  efforts. 

It  is  impossible  in  a  brief  space  to  indicate  the  details  of 
special  methods ;  the  greater  portion  of  Pestalozzian  litera- 
ture is  given  up  to  this.  A  few  indications  of  immediate 
general  changes  must  suffice  for  fuller  presentation.  The 
great  emphasis  upon  arithmetic  in  elementary  education  is 
partly  due  to  his  insistence  upon  the  importance  of  number. 
Especially  "  mental  "  arithmetic,  which  indicated  an  "intui- 
tive" knowledge  of  numerical  relationships  instead  of  a  mere 
knowledge  of  rules,  acquired  an  important  place  in  the  school. 
All  arithmetical  relations  were  reduced  to  the  fundamental 
processes  of  the  combination  and  separation  of  units,  addi- 
tion and  subtraction.  The  object  was  to  give  the  child  a 
thorough  understanding  of  the  properties  and  proportions  of 
numbers,  and  not  merely  formal  methods  of  "ciphering." 
Instruction  in  numbers  was  connected  with  objects  and  with 
the  play  or  other  activities  of  the  child.  Greater  success  was 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        619 

reached  and  greater  improvement  in  the  method  of  the  schools 
was  made  in  the  instruction  in  this  subject  than  in  any  other. 

Great  attention  was  paid  to  drawing,  of  which  subject  writ- 
ing formed  a  part.  In  both  writing  and  drawing  the  child, 
starting  with  a  mastery  of  simple  elements,  straight  lines, 
angles,  curves,  by  slow  processes  of  combinations  through 
thorough  exercises,  was  led  to  a  real  mastery  of  these  arts 
through  the  synthetic  process,  and  not  by  mere  imitation. 
In  fact,  all  mere  memory  and  purely  imitative  processes 
were  theoretically  at  least  to  be  eliminated  from  the  school 
in  favor  of  this  training  in  "  intuitive  "  or  vitalized  obser- 
vation. 

In  the  language  studies  similar  advances  were  made,  though 
with  the  usual  accompanying  errors.  The  old  method  of 
letter  spelling  and  reading  was  replaced  by  the  phonetic  and 
syllabic  method.  Great  effort  was  put  forth  to  reduce  this  to 
its  simplest  form,  with  much  greater  success,  from  the  nature 
of  the  languages,  in  German  than  in  French  and  in  English. 
Nevertheless,  the  endless  and  meaningless  repetition  of  ele- 
mental syllables,  "  ab,  ib,  ob,  ub,"  etc.,  that  formerly  con- 
stituted so  large  a  part  of  spelling  and  reading  books,  was 
sanctioned  by  Pestalozzi's  methods.  A  notable  feature  was 
the  use  of  objects  as  the  basis  of  language  lessons  in 
all  their  phases  in  substitution  for  the  purely  meaningless 
drill  in  words  which  were  beyond  the  understanding  or  in- 
terest of  the  child. 

The  methods  of  geography  were  similarly  transformed,  at 
least  in  theory;  though  here,  as  in  other  subjects,  many  schools 
yet  await  the  arrival  of  the  century-old  reform.  The  school 
yard  or  the  village  was  to  furnish  the  simple  elements  of  this 
subject  and  these  were  to  be  combined  and  expanded,  step  by 
step,  until  the  structure  of  the  whole  earth  and  its  relation  to 
man  were  developed  from  the  simple  elements.  Geography 
was  made  the  basis  of,  or  at  least  closely  connected  with, 
instruction  in  nature  studies  (natural  history)  and  agriculture, 


620  History  of  Education 

In  fact  the  nature-study  movement,  being  closely  related  to 
object  study,  was  an  outgrowth  of  these  new  methods,  though 
as  in  most  other  subjects  great  advance  has  been  made  since 
then  in  special  methods  and  in  the  very  conception  of  this 
study.  Singing  and  gymnastics  formed  important  parts  of 
the  newly  organized  schoolroom  activities ;  the  latter  was  a 
complete  innovation,  the  former  was  of  an  entirely  different 
character  from  that  previously  dominated  by  religious  spirit. 
But  it  was  not  for  proficiency  in  music  that  this  great  empha- 
sis was  made,  but  for  its  influence  on  the  feelings  and  on  moral 
training.  In  general,  the  arrangement  of  all  modern  text- 
books is  a  direct  though  not  necessarily  an  immediate  out- 
growth of  Pestalozzi's  efforts  at  analyzing  the  subject  into 
its  simplest  elements  and  proceeding  then  by  a  gradual  in- 
crease in  the  complexity  of  the  material  to  build  up  a  con- 
nected and  symmetrical  understanding  of  the  subject.  The 
old  method  of  beginning  with  a  mastery  of  rules  and  princi- 
ples as  in  arithmetic,  of  the  rules  of  abstract  form  in  language. 
or  of  most  general  relations,  as  in  geography,  history,  and  the 
natural  sciences,  has  been  gradually  superseded. 

Morf,  one  of  Pestalozzi's  ablest  disciples,  summarizes  the 
general  principles  of  these  methods  as  follows  :  — 

(i)  Observation,  or  sense-perception  (intuition),  is  the  basis 
of  instruction.  (2)  Language  should  always  be  linked  with 
observation  (intuition),  i.e.  with  an  object  or  content.  (3)  The 
time  for  learning  is  not  the  time  for  judgment  and  criticism. 

(4)  In  any  branch  teaching  should  begin  with  the  simplest 
elements  and  proceed  gradually  according  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  child,  that  is,  in  psychologically  connected  order. 

(5)  Sufficient  time  should  be  devoted  to  each  point  of  the 
teaching  in  order  to  secure  the  complete  mastery  of  it  by  the 
pupil.     (6)  Teaching   should  aim  at  development,   and   not 
at  dogmatic  exposition.     (7)  The  teacher  should  respect  the 
individuality  of  the  pupil.      (8)  The  chief  end  of  elementary 
teaching  is  not  to  impart  knowledge  and  talent  to  the  learner, 
but  to  develop  and  increase  the  powers  of  his  intelligence. 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education         621 


(9)  Power  must  be  linked  to  knowledge,  and  skill  to  learn- 
ing. (10)  The  relation  between  the  teacher  and  the  pupil, 
especially  as  to  discipline,  should  be  based  upon  and  ruled  by 
love,  (u)  Instruction  should  be  subordinate  to  the  higher 
aim  of  education. 

(d)  Influence  on  the  General  Spirit  of  the  Schoolroom.  — 
There  remains  one  further  point  to  be  noted, — that  contained 
in  the  tenth  princi- 
ple stated  above.  In 
regard  to  method, 
as  Pestalozzi  him- 
self stated  in  an  ex- 
aggerated  way, 
"  half  the  world " 
was  working  on  the 
same  problem.  The 
new  purpose  in  edu- 
cation was  held  by 
many  others  —  pub- 
lic men,  religious 
leaders,  philoso- 
phers, and  educators. 
In  defining  the  new 
meaning  of  educa- 
tion, he  was  but 
making  more  ex- 
plicit the  ideas  of 
Rousseau,  Basedow, 
and  others.  His 
peculiar  excellence 
was  in  making  evi- 
dent, through  all 
his  writings  and  all 
his  work,  that  a  new  spirit  must  pervade  the  schoolroom, 
that  both  teacher  and  pupil  must  breathe  a  new  atmosphere, 


A  TYPICAL  GERMAN  SCHOOLROOM  OF  THE 
EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 


622 


History  of  Education 


—  the  atmosphere  of  the  home.  What  cannot  be  taken 
away  from  him  is  the  credit  for  demonstration  from  the 
very  nature  of  the  educational  process  that  when  the  end  is 
development  and  not  mere  acquisition  of  formal  principles, 
the  only  basis  for  the  relation  of  teacher  and  pupil  is  sym- 
pathy. The  contrast  is  clearly  indicated  by  a  comparison  of 
accompanying  illustrations;  one  of  the  typical  German  schools 


PESTALOZZI  IN  HIS  SCHOOLROOM  AT  STANZ. 

before  Pestalozzi's  time,  the  other  of  Pestalozzi's  school  at 
Stanz.  In  other  lines,  more  recent  times  have  developed  the 
germs  of  the  ideas  suggested  by  the  unlettered  reformer;  but 
in  this  one  respect,  every  modern  schoolroom  is  so  directly 
indebted  to  him  that  he  may  yet  be  called,  as  he  was  by  his 
own  teachers  and  followers,  "Father  Pestalozzi." 

THE  HERBARTIAN  MOVEMENT.  Its  Relation  to  Pesta- 
lozzianism.  —  Herbart  built  upon  and  supplemented  the  work 
of  Pestalozzi.  But  he  soon  reached  an  elaboration  of  educa- 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education         623 

tional  thought  far  beyond  that  of  Pestalozzi.  The  latter 
insisted  always  in  his  theoretical  statements  that  instruction 
was  to  lead  from  sense-perception  to  "  clear  ideas."  But  his 
practical  work  went  little  beyond  the  formulation  of  the  train- 
ing in  sense-perception  through  exercises  in  observation. 
Except  as  he  accomplished  it  with  a  few  children  through 
the  genius  of  his  own  personality,  he  did  not  show  either 
theoretically  or  practically  how  mental  assimilation  and 
growth  take  place  from  this  starting  point,  or  how  moral 
character  was  to  be  made  the  outcome.  Herbart  carried 
this  further  and  showed  how  the  product  of  sense-perception 
could  be  converted  into  ideas,  through  the  apperceptive  pro- 
cess, and  how  knowledge  in  turn  could  thus  be  made  to  bear 
upon  moral  character  through  the  processes  of  instruction. 
As  Pestalozzi  would  substitute  his  method  for  the  formal 
verbal  methods  in  memory  training  of  the  existing  schools, 
making  this  latter  method  wholly  subordinate  to  methods  of 
training  in  sense-perception,  so  Herbart  would  use  Pesta- 
lozzi's  method  merely  as  an  initial  one.  In  a  discussion  of 
the  Pestalozzian  method,  Herbart  says  :  — 

"  The  whole  field  of  actual  and  possible  sense-perception  is 
open  to  the  Pestalozzian  method ;  its  movements  in  it  will 
grow  constantly  freer  and  larger.  Its  peculiar  merit  consists 
in  having  laid  hold  more  boldly  and  more  zealously  than  any 
former  method  of  the  duty  of  building  up  the  child's  mind,  of 
constructing  in  it  a  definite  experience  in  the  light  of  clear 
sense-perception  ;  not  acting  as  if  the  child  had  already  an  ex- 
perience, but  taking  care  that  he  gets  one ;  by  not  chatting 
with  him  as  though  in  him,  as  in  an  adult,  there  al/eady  were 
a  need  for  communicating  and  elaborating  his  acquisitions, 
but,  in  the  very  first  place,  giving  him  that  which  later  on  can 
be,  and  is  to  be,  discussed.  The  Pestalozzian  method,  there- 
fore, is  by  no  means  qualified  to  crowd  out  any  other  method, 
but  to  prepare  the  way  for  it.  It  takes  care  of  the  earliest 
age  that  is  at  all  capable  of  receiving  instruction.  It  treats 
it  with  the  seriousness  and  simplicity  which  are  appropriate 
when  the  very  first  raw  materials  are  to  be  procured.  But  we 


624  History  of  Education 

can  be  no  more  content  with  it  than  we  can  regard  the  human 
mind  as  a  dead  tablet  on  which  the  letters  remain  as  origi- 
nally written  down." 

Consequently,  in  one  other  main  point,  Herbart  differs 
radically  from  Pestalozzi,  again  by  way  of  addition.  As 
Pestalozzi  made  the  presentation  of  the  physical  world 
through  sense-perception  the  chief  aim  of  instruction,  if  not 
of  education,  Herbart  made  the  moral  (aesthetic)  presentation 
of  the  universe  the  chief  end  of  education.  Sense-percep- 
tion is  no  longer  sufficient.  "  Experience,  human-converse, 
and  instruction  taken  all  together  constitute  the  presentation 
of  the  universe."  As  a  result,  the  emphasis  which  Pesta- 
lozzianism  tended  to  place  on  arithmetic,  geography,  and  the 
nature  studies  is  replaced  in  Herbartianism  by  an  emphasis 
on  pure  mathematics  on  the  one  hand  and  more  especially  on 
the  other  by  that  on  the  classical  languages,  literature,  and 
history. 

At  one  other  point  Herbart's  work  takes  its  initiative  from 
Pestalozzi's.  The  latter  reiterated  his  purpose  of  "  psycholo- 
gizing education  " ;  but  while  rejecting  the  old  psychology 
he  did  not  and  could  not  construct  any  system  of  his  own. 
Herbart  did  quite  as  notable  work  in  this  line  as  in  construc- 
tive educational  thought.  However,  his  psychological  ideas 
much  sooner  served  their  purpose  than  have  the  educational, 
and  gave  way  to  more  accurate  knowledge. 

In  general,  Herbart's  work  was  the  antithesis  of  Pestalozzi's, 
in  that  it  was  logical  and  philosophical  in  character,  while 
Pestalozzi's  possessed  no  logical  form  or  system  and  little 
definitely  formulated  philosophical  basis.  The  one  possessed 
the  comprehensive  view  and  calm  logic  of  the  philosopher; 
the  other  the  intense  emotionalism  and  strong  purpose  of  the 
reformer  working  toward  immediate  betterment,  though  with 
no  adequate  view  of  the  ultimate  end. 

Life  and  Works  of  John  Frederick  Herbart  (1776-1841). — 
There  is  little  in  the  life  activities  of  the  man  that  throws 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        625 

light  upon  his  educational  doctrines,  and  hence  little  that  can 
concern  us  here.  Passing  through  the  traditional  educational 
course  of  the  gymnasium  and  university,  he  gave  evidence  of 
ability  and  originality  at  every  point.  At  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  he  left  the  university  for  a  three  years'  experience  as 
private  tutor,  from  which  he  formulated  much  of  his  educa- 
tional doctrine.  He  later  enunciated  the  belief  that  any  real 
knowledge  of  the  psychology  of  education  can  be  gained,  not 
from  the  study  of  children  in  masses  and  from  brief  acquaint- 
ance, but  only  from  a  prolonged  intimate  study  of  the  mental 
development  of  a  very  few  individuals.  He  returned  later  to 
study  and  then  to  give  instruction  in  philosophy  and  in  edu- 
cation in  the  University  of  Gottingen.  Here  and  at  the 
University  of  Konigsberg  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life. 
At  the  latter  place  he  established  his  pedagogical  seminar 
with  a  practice  school  attached,  the  forerunner  of  the  univer- 
sity type  of  instruction  and  experimentation  in  the  subject  of 
education.  While  as  a  member  of  school  commissions  he 
took  some  part  in  educational  reform,  his  life  for  the  most 
part  was  spent  in  investigation,  lecturing,  and  publication. 
Referring  to  his  approach  to  educational  problems,  he  says 
in  one  of  his  essays,  —  Observations  on  a  Pedagogical  Essay : 

"  I  have  for  twenty  years  employed  metaphysics  and  mathe- 
matics, and  side  by  side  with  them  self-observation,  experi- 
ence, and  experiments,  merely  to  find  the  foundations  of  true 
psychological  insight.  And  the  motive  for  these  not  exactly 
toilless  investigations  has  been  and  is,  in  the  main,  my  con- 
viction that  a  large  part  of  the  enormous  gaps  in  our  peda-  ] 
gogical  knowledge  results  from  lack  of  psychology,  and  that  i 
we  must  first  have  this  science  —  nay,  that  we  must  first  of 
all  remove  the  mirage  which  to-day  goes  by  the  name  of 
psychology  —  before  we  shall  be  able  to  determine  with  some 
certainty  concerning  even  a  single  instruction  period  what  in 
it  was  done  aright  and  what  amiss." 

Herbart's  Psychology.  —  This,  then,  is  Herbart's  great  con-  | 
tribution  to  education.     The  movement  which  Locke  began  I 


626  History  of  Education 

in  making  the  child  the  center  of  educational  endeavor  and 
pedagogical  theory;  which  Rousseau  established  in  general 
form  through  his  brilliant  critical  and  destructive  work  in  the 
form  of  investigative  literature ;  which  Pestalozzi  brought 
down  to  the  schoolroom  and  made  concrete  in  the  hands  of 
every  teacher;  that  movement  Herbart  made  permanent  by 
giving  it  an  actual  scientific  basis  in  place  of  the  imaginative 
one  of  Rousseau  and  the  empirical  one  of  Pestalozzi.  We 
are  here  concerned  only  with  the  main  educational  applications, 
not  with  an  exposition  of  Herbart's  psychology,  which  at 
most  points  has  received  development  and  modification  with 
the  investigation  of  the  intervening  century,  and  at  many 
important  points  has  been  entirely  superseded. 

The  fundamental  point  is  that  he  established  educational 
work  upon  the  basis  of  a  unified  mental  life  and  development. 
As  previously  noted,  the  psychology  prevailing  even  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  —  popular  even  to-day  —  was  the  Aristotelian 
"  faculty  "  psychology,  but  slightly  modified  even  by  modern 
thought.  The  soul  was  endowed  with  higher  and  lower 
capacities,  entirely  distinct,  each  class  of  mental  phenomena 
being  considered  as  the  product  of  the  appropriate  faculty. 
The  more  important  were  those  of  knowledge,  feeling,  and 
will,  which  were  in  turn  divided  into  an  elaborate  system  of 
capacities  or  sub-faculties.  With  this  diversity  of  mental  life 
as  a  basis,  the  work  of  the  school  possessed  a  similar  diversity 
of  aims,  for  each  separate  faculty  demanded  its  appropriate 
and  distinct  training  through  some  form  of  discipline  (see 
Chapter  IX).  In  place  of  this  Herbart  substituted  the  con- 
ception that  the  soul  is  a  unity,  not  endowed  with  intuitive  or 
inborn  faculties,  but  a  blank  at  birth,  possessing  but  one 
power,  —  that  of  entering  into  relation  with  its  environment 
through  the  nervous  system.  Through  these  relations  the 
mind  is  furnished  with  its  primary  "  presentations  "  of  sense- 
perception  ;  and  from  these  the  whole  mental  life  is  developed. 
The  interaction  of  these  presentations  lead  through  general!- 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        627 

zation  to  concepts,  and  by  similar  processes  of  interaction  to 
acts  of  judgment  and  reasoning.  What  the  teacher  has  to 
work  with  is  a  mass  of  presentations,  coming  from  two  main 
sources,  —  experience,  contact  with  nature ;  and  intercourse, 
contact  with  society.  Through  the  expansion  of  the  one 
original  power  the  teacher  has  to  develop  knowledge  from 
experiences  and  sympathy  from  intercourse,  by  processes 
which  are  to  be  noted  in  the  following  sections. 

The  mind  or  soul  is  built  up,  acquires  a  content,  not  through 
the  development  of  inherent  faculties,  but  through  presenta- 
tions, —  through  ideas  resulting  from  its  own  experiences.  It 
is  inherently  neither  good  nor  bad,  but  develops  one  way  or 
the  other  according  to  external  influences,  that  is  according 
to  what  it  receives  in  the  way  of  presentations  and  the  man- 
ner of  their  combinations.  Two  corollaries  of  tremendous 
importance  to  education  follow  :  (i)  The  chief  characteristic 
of  the  mind  is  its  power  of  assimilation;  (2)  education,  which 
determines  what  presentations  the  mind  receives,  and  also  the 
manner  in  which  they  are  combined  into  higher  mental  pro- 
cesses, is  the  chief  determining  force  in  shaping  the  mind  and 
character. 

Herbart's  educational  doctrines  are  thus  founded  upon  this 
assimilative  function  of  the  mind,  —  apperception.  So  far  as 
the  immediate  importance  of  this  doctrine  to  the  teacher  is 
concerned  it  is  immaterial,  as  has  often  been  pointed  out, 
whether  one  agrees  with  Herbart  in  rejecting  all  inherent 
constitutive  powers  of  the  mind  or  not,  for  such  original 
powers  are  beyond  control,  and  the  best  that  the  teacher  can 
do  under  any  circumstances  is  to  direct  the  development  of 
the  mind  through  control  of  this  assimilative  process.  From 
this  point  of  view  De  Garmo  thus  states  the  work  of  the 
teacher: — 

"  His  primary  function  is  to  impart  knowledge  in  such  a 
way  that  it  can  be  most  rapidly,  securely,  and  profitably  assim- 
ilated, and  this  is  the  problem  of  concrete  apperception, 


628  History  of  Education 

Whether  the  mind  be  a  germ  or  a  series  of  germs  to  be  devel- 
oped, or  whether  it  is  a  structure  to  be  erected,  the  process  is 
still  the  same  from  the  teacher's  standpoint.  He  must  know 
something  of  the  child's  previous  knowledge  and  interests  in 
order  to  utilize  them ;  he  must  select  his  materials  of  instruc- 
tion with  respect  to  ultimate  purposes  and  the  pupil's  compre- 
hending powers  ;  he  must  arrange  the  subject-matter,  not  only 
with  respect  to  the  pupil's  acquired  experience,  but  also  with 
respect  to  that  which  he  is  going  to  acquire,  i.e.  the  studies 
must  be  brought  into  the  best  coordinate  relation  to  one 
another,  and  he  must  adapt  his  teaching  processes  so  as  to 
secure  the  quickest  apprehension  and  the  longest  retention  of 
the  matter  taught.  All  this  has  to  do  with  the  acquisition  of 
new  experience  upon  the  basis  of  that  already  acquired." 

Apperception,  then,  —  the  assimilation  of  ideas  by  means  of 
ideas  already  acquired  —  is  the  basal  psychological  principle 
of  Herbart  when  applied  to  education ;  the  theoretical  expo- 
sition of  this  idea  is  his  chief  work  ;  its  practical  elaboration, 
that  of  his  followers. 

Conception  and  Purpose  of  Education.  — Herbart  derived  his 
conception  of  education  from  philosophy  as  he  derived  its  aim 
from  ethics.  On  the  one  hand  he  opposed  determinism  or 
fatalism,  which  rendered  education  impossible  or  at  least 
mechanical,  since  character  according  to  this  view  is  shaped 
by  forces  entirely  beyond  control.  On  the  other  hand  he 
opposed  the  doctrine  of  the  transcendental  freedom  of  the  will, 
which  made  moral  education  useless,  since  according  to  this 
view  the  will  chooses  entirely  independent  of  such  would-be 
determining  influences.  The  will,  then,  is  not  any  independ- 
ent faculty  of  the  mind  that  can  originate  actions  that  are 
independent  of  ideas  or  thought  processes,  but  it  is  a  func- 
tioning of  the  mind,  growing  out  of  and  wholly  dependent 
upon  the  ideas  or  presentations  possessed  by  the  mind.  This 
conception  of  the  will  is  fundamental  and  must  be  kept  in 
\  mind  throughout  any  consideration  of  Herbart's  doctrines. 
The  will  is  the  product  of  action  or  experience,  not,  as  usually 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        629 

held,  the  determining  cause  of  action.  The  apperceptive  pro- 
cess is  fundamental,  because  ideas  lead  to  action,  action 
determines  character.  The  aim  of  education,  according  to 
Herbart,  is  ethical.  "The  one  and  the  whole  work  of  edu- 
cation may  be  summed  up  in  the  concept,  —  morality,"  is  the 
opening  sentence  of  the  Aesthetic  Presentation.  Again,  "  The 
term  '  virtue '  expresses  the  whole  purpose  of  education,"  is  a 
statement  in  his  Educational  Doctrines.  To  him  virtue  was 
"the  idea  of  inner  freedom  which  has  developed  into  an 
abiding  actuality  in  an  individual."  That  is,  it  is  an  evolu-j 
tionary  product  in  each  individual,  resulting  from  a  cumulative  \ 
series  of  experiences,  because  each  relationship  calls  forth  an 
independent  judgment  of  approval  or  disapproval.  Since 
these  judgments  are  without  proof,  but  spring  immediately 
from  a  contemplation  of  the  relationship  and  are  thus  like 
those  of  taste,  Herbart  called  them  aesthetic  judgments. 
His  first  philosophical  treatise  on  education  is  entitled  The 
^Esthetic  Presentation  of  the  Universe  as  the  Chief  Aim  of  Edu- 
cation. Herbart,  carrying  Pestalozzi's  analysis  of  the  alpha- 
bet of  perception  —  number,  form,  language  —  much  further, 
found  the  necessity  for  various  other  elements,  notably  those 
of  taste  and  obligation.  Rather,  he  combined  the  two  under 
the  norm  of  what  is  not  necessarily  so,  but  what  ought  to  be. 
These  are  called  cesthetic  presentations.  Such  presentations 
include  "the  fitting,  the  beautiful,  the  moral,  the  just;  in 
one  word,  that  which  in  its  perfect  state  pleases  after  perfect 
contemplation."  To  develop  this  attitude  of  preference  for ' 
that  which  constitutes  "  inner  freedom  "  into  an  "  abiding  ac-  j 
tuality  in  the  individual "  is  the  chief  aim  of  education.  The ; 
process  of  doing  this  constitutes  the  "aesthetic  presentation 
of  the  universe,"  through  "  experience,  human  converse,  and 
instruction." 

Herbart' s  analysis  of  virtue,  or  of  moral  character,  went 
further ;  it  was  not  left  in  formal  terms,  but  was  reduced  to 
five  moral  relationships  or  ideas.  The  fundamental  one  was 


030  History  of  Education 

that  of  inner  freedom  —  the  harmony  between  the  volition 
or  desire  on  the  one  hand  and  insight  and  conviction  on  the 
other.  To  this  were  added  efficiency,  or  perfection  (the 
balance  or  harmony  of  the  Greeks);  benevolence,  or  good 
will;  justice;  and  equity,  or  retribution.  These  individual 
elements  have  their  social  counterparts :  that  of  inner  free- 
dom in  the  idea  of  an  ideal  society,  that  of  efficiency  in 
the  system  of  culture,  the  idea  of  benevolence  in  the  system 
of  government,  that  of  justice  in  the  system  of  law,  that  of 
equity  in  the  system  of  rewards  and  wages.  As  elsewhere,  so 
1  here,  Herbart  establishes  a  unity  between  the  ideals  of  indi- 
!  vidual  character  and  the  ethics  of  social  life.  These  rela- 
tionships furnish  the  content  of  morality.  The  work  of 
education  then  is  to  form  character  "  which  in  the  battle  of 
life  shall  stand  unmoved,  not  through  the  strength  of  its 
external  action,  but  on  the  firm  and  enduring  foundations 
of  its  moral  insight  and  enlightened  will." 

The  nature  of  the  aim  of  education  having  been  deter- 
mined, there  arises  a  second  point  in  Herbart's  theory  con- 
cerning the  nature  of  education.  The  concrete  work  of 
education  is  (i)  to  furnish  the  mind  with  presentations  or 
experiences,  and  (2)  upon  the  basis  of  these  presentations  to 
"  complete  the  circle  of  thought "  through  ideas  and  motiva- 
tion to  action.  As  previously  noted,  presentations  furnish 
the  elements  out  of  which  the  mind  is  composed ;  thus  far 
Pestalozzi  went.  But  it  is  the  second  point  taken  in  connec- 
tion with  the  first  that  is  significant  in  Herbart's  doctrine. 
Morality  depends  upon  good  will  and  knowledge;  these  in 
turn  upon  the  general  enlightenment  of  the  whole  man,  in 
other  words  upon  the  ideas  developed  from  the  interac- 
tion of  primary  presentations.  There  is  no  independent 
function  of  willing  in  the  individual.  Action  is  the  result 
of  motivation,  or  desire  springing  from  these  presenta- 
tions, influenced  by  good  will  springing  from  the  same 
source.  Hence  the  importance  of  the  instruction  given  by 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        631 

the  teacher.     This  is  the  summary  given  by  Herbart  in  the 
Esthetic  Presentation :  — 

"  '  A  making*  which  the  pupil  himself  discovers  when  choos- 
ing the  good  and  rejecting  the  bad — this  or  nothing  is  the 
formation  of  character.  This  rise  to  self-conscious  personal- 
ity ought  without  doubt  to  take  place  in  the  mind  of  the 
pupil  himself,  and  be  completed  through  his  own  activity ;  it 
would  be  nonsense  if  the  teacher  desired  to  create  the  real 
essence  of  the  power  to  do  it,  and  to  pour  it  into  the  soul  of 
his  pupil.  But  to  place  the  power  already  existent  and  in 
its  nature  trustworthy  under  such  conditions  that  it  must  in- 
fallibly and  surely  accomplish  this  rise  —  this  it  is  which  the 
teacher  must  look  upon  as  possible,  which  to  attain,  to  affect, 
to  investigate,  to  forward,  and  to  guide,  he  must  regard  as  the 
great  object  of  all  his  efforts." 

The  third  point  in  Herbart's  theory  follows ;  namely,  this 
formation  of  character,  which  is  dependent  upon  the  shap-  ) 
ing  of  the  will,  is  determined  by  educative  instruction.  This 
follows  from  two  subordinate  principles:  (i)  That  these 
presentations  which  constitute  the  content  of  the  mind  are 
modifiable  (through  the  apperceptive  process),  and  (2)  that 
these  presentations  determine  conduct.  Conduct  and  char-  ( 
acter,  then,  depend  primarily  upon  the  sort  of  presentations 
acquired  by  the  mind,  and  upon  the  manner  in  which  they 
are  acquired  or  given;  for  the  worth  of  moral  as  well  as 
mental  instruction  depends  upon  following  the  proper  psy- 
chological procedure  in  the  building  up  of  the  more  complex 
presentations.  In  other  words,  it  is  the  business  of  the  teache; 
to  determine  the  character  and  the  relation  —  at  least  thK 
order  of  sequence  —  of  the  presentations  that  constitute  the 
content  of  the  child's  mind ;  by  so  doing  he  shapes  the  child'f 
conduct,  and  thus  his  character.  If  these  primary  presenta- 
tions have  been  fully  acquired  ;  if  the  proper  and  harmonious 
relations  are  established  between  them  ;  if  from  the  presen 
tations  derived  from  social  intercourse  the  appropriate  sym- 
pathy or  good  will  has  also  been  developed,  ;hen  the  good 


632  History  of  Education 

moral  character,  perforce,  is  the  outcome.  In  the  process  ol 
rejecting  that  which  is  erroneous  and  evil  the  pupil  finds  or 
develops  his  true  self ;  it  is  "  a  making  which  the  pupil  him- 
self discovers  when  choosing  the  good  and  rejecting  the  bad." 
The  extent  to  which  the  teacher  is  competent  to  produce  such 
results  is  thus  stated  :  "  The  capacity  for  education,  therefore, 
is  determined  not  by  the  relationship  in  which  various  origi- 
nally distinct  mental  faculties  stand  to  one  another,  but  by 
the  relations  of  ideas  already  acquired  to  one  another  and  to 
the  physical  organism."  As  previously  seen,  the  character 
of  these  presentations  or  the  relations  of  these  ideas  is  modi- 
fiable by  education  —  not,  however,  the  ordinary  instruction 
of  the  schools,  against  which  Herbart  strove  as  did  Pestalozzi, 
though  he  has  much  less  to  say  about  it.  Nor  is  instruction 
in  the  Pestalozzian  sense  sufficient. 

"  Instruction  in  the  sense  of  mere  information  contains  no 
guarantee  whatever  that  it  will  materially  counteract  faults 
and  influence  existing  groups  of  ideas  that  are  independent  of 
the  imparted  information.  But  it  is  these  ideas  that  education 
must  reach  ;  for  the  kind  and  extent  of  assistance  that  instruc- 
tion may  render  to  conduct  depend  upon  the  hold  it  has  upon 
them." 

Such  instruction,  then,  which  modifies  the  groups  of  ideas 
already  possessed  by  the  mind  causing  them  to  form  a  new 
unity  or  harmonious  series  of  unities,  and  which  thus  deter- 
mines conduct,  is  alone  educative.  A  volition  is  but  an  idea 
that  has  passed  through  complete  development,  in  which  the 
circle  of  thought,  beginning  with  interest  and  ending  with 
action,  has  been  completed.  This  educative  instruction  that 
reaches  and  forms  the  will  or  determines  volitions,  and  thus 
shapes  character,  is  the  proper  work  of  the  school.  The 
immediate  means  to  this  educative  instruction  is  by  arousing 
in  the  child's  mind  a  "  many-sided  interest." 

Herbartian  Means  and  Method.  How  Instruction  can  be 
made  Educative. — The  presentation  of  the  doctrine  of  interest, 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        633 

which  here  must  be  given  in  a  few  words,  constitutes  the  bulk 
of  Herbartian  literature,  both  of  Herbart's  systematic  works, 
including  the  Science  of  Education  and  the  Outlines  of  Educa- 
tional Doctrine,  and  of  those  of  his  expositors  and  followers. 

"The  ultimate  purpose  of  instruction  is  contained  in  the 
notion,  virtue.  But  in  order  to  realize  the  final  aim  another 
and  nearer  one  must  be  set  up.  We  may  term  it  many- 
sidedness  of  interest.  The  word  interest  stands  in  general  for 
that  kind  of  mental  activity  which  it  is  the  business  of  in- 
struction to  incite.  Mere  information  does  not  suffice;  for 
this  we  think  of  as  supply  or  store  of  facts,  which  a  person 
might  possess  or  lack  and  still  remain  the  same  being.  But 
he  who  lays  hold  of  this  information  and  reaches  out  for  more 
takes  an  interest  in  it.  Since,  however,  this  mental  activity  is 
varied,  we  need  to  add  the  further  determination  supplied  by 
the  term  many-sided." 

This  is  the  approach  to  the  subject  in  Herbart's  latest  sys- 
tematic work,  in  which  we  find  interest  defined  as  a  mental 
activity  or  condition  accompanying  the  process  of  apper- 
ceiving  an  idea. 

The  relation  of  this  many-sidedness  to  the  individuality  of 
the  pupil  and  the  work  of  the  teacher  is  more  clearly  indi- 
cated in  his  earlier  systematic  work.  Here  the  approach  is 
as  follows :  — 

"  Every  man  must  have  a  love  for  all  activity,  each  must 
be  a  virtuoso  in  one.  But  the  particular  virtuoship  is  a 
matter  of  choice ;  on  the  contrary,  the  manifold  receptivity, 
which  can  only  grow  out  of  manifold  beginnings  of  one's  own 
individual  efforts,  is  a  matter  of  education.  Therefore  we 
call  the  first  part  of  the  educational  aim  many-sidedness  of  in- 
terest, which  must  be  distinguished  from  its  exaggeration,  — 
dabbling  in  many  things.  And  since  no  one  object  of  will,  or 
its  individual  direction,  interests  us  more  than  any  other,  we 
add  to  this,  lest  weakness  may  offend  us  by  appearing  on  the 
side  of  strength,  the  predicate,  —  proportionate  many-sided 
ness." 


«>34  History  of  Education 

Since  volitions  are  the  results  of  ideas,  it  becomes  of  ut- 
most importance  that  the  pupils  should  conceive  a  genuine 
interest  in  the  subjects  of  study,  for  only  thus  do  these  ideas 
enter  into  organic  relationship  with  the  presentations  already 
in  the  mind ;  and  to  affect  character  permanently,  these  in- 
terests must  be  made  abiding.  The  arousing  of  interest  is  not 
merely  a  means  for  securing  attention  in  the  lesson,  it  is  the 
means  for  securing  the  complete  appropriation  of  new  ideas 
or  presentations  through  their  apperception,  so  that  they  enter 
into  the  constitution  of  new  unities  in  the  child's  mind  and 
thus  form  a  new  and  more  elaborate  and  secure  basis  for  con- 
duct. Such  interest  in  the  activity  remains  after  the  learning 
or  apperceiving  process  is  complete ;  by  making  it  many-sided 
and  proportionate,  a  harmonious  and  broad  character  is  pro- 
duced. It  is  the  work  of  the  teacher  to  blend  the  individual- 
ity of  the  pupil  into  many-sidedness,  by  the  development 
of  these  many  interests  and  activities  through  instruction,  so 
that  character  is  the  result.  Individuality  is  unconscious, 
character  is  conscious.  "  There  are  many  individualities ;  the 
idea  of  many-sidedness  is  but  one."  But  the  latter  is  the 
whole  of  which  the  individualities  are  but  parts  to  be  meas- 
ured by  the  whole.  The  work  of  the  teacher,  starting  with 
the  individuality  of  the  pupil,  is  to  increase  the  quantity  of 
interests  without  changing  the  outlines,  the  proportion,  or  the 
form  of  this  many-sidedness.  "  Only  this  work  undertaken 
with  the  individual  does  always  change  his  outlines,  as  if 
from  a  certain  point  in  an  irregular  angular  body  a  sphere 
gradually  grew,  which  was  nevertheless  incapable  of  ever 
covering  over  the  extreme  projections.  The  projections,  the 
strength  of  individuality,  may  remain  so  far  as  they  do  not 
spoil  the  character ;  through  them  the  entire  outline  may  take 
this  or  that  form."  The  work  of  the  teacher  then,  is  to  blend 
individuality  with  many-sidedness  and  the  more  thoroughly 
this  is  done,  "  the  more  easily  will  character  assert  its  sway 
over  the  individual." 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        635 

In  order  to  accomplish  this,  the  teacher  must  have  a  care 
for  two  things  :  first,  for  the  selection  of  the  proper  materials, : 
as  the  subject-matter  of  instruction,  —  materials  that  will 
furnish  the  proper  presentations  both  of  experience  and 
intercourse ;  and  second,  for  the  proper  method  of  instruc- 
tion so  that  the  presentations  are  arranged  in  an  order  har- 
monious with  the  psychological  development  of  the  child, 
and  so  that  this  many-sidedness  of  interest  is  an  inevitable 
result. 

Correlation  of  Studies.  — The  first  of  these  essentials  gives 
rise  to  the  idea  of  the  correlation  or  unification  of  studies. 
Herbart  himself  believed  that  the  Homeric  poems  furnished 
the  best  materials  for  the  education  of  boys.  For  here,  he 
held,  in  the  youth  of  the  race  were  to  be  found  the  same 
activities  and  interests  that  were  natural  to  the  youth  of  the 
individual.  This  material  was  to  be  followed  by  other  por- 
tions of  the  Greek  and  Latin  literatures,  combined  with  the 
study  of  certain  periods  in  history  all  selected  upon  the  basis 
of  progressive  complexity  of  interests  and  consequently  of 
objective  materials.  This  idea,  expanded,  was  given  a  fuller 
application  to  education  in  the  form  of  the  culture  epoch 
theory  by  some  of  Herbart's  expositors,  notably  by  Ziller. 
The  idea  in  brief  is  that  the  stages  of  culture  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  race  are  paralleled  by  the  stages  of  mental  devel- 
opment of  the  individual,  just  as  there  is  a  parallel  between 
the  embryonic  or  ontogenetic  development  of  the  individual 
organism  and  the  organic  or  phylogenetic  development  of 
the  species.  Consequently,  in  order  to  follow  the  proper 
order  in  the  psychological  development  of  the  child,  the 
materials  of  instruction  should  be  selected  and  arranged 
according  to  the  stages  in  the  cultural  development  of  the 
race.  The  culture  epoch  theory,  however,  is  only  incidental 
to  the  idea  of  correlation  of  studies,  being  but  one  means  for 
determination,  not  only  of  the  order  of  arrangement  of 
materials,  but  of  their  selection  as  well.  The  idea  of  cor 


636  History  of  Education 

relation  itself  demands  only  that  the  materials  of  instruction 
even  if  classified  into  the  various  school  subjects,  should 
nevertheless  be  so  organized  that  they  preserve  the  unity 
which  is  essential  to  the  development  of  a  unified  conscious- 
ness in  the  individual.  In  other  words,  the  material  should 
be  so  unified  that  it  shall  be  wholly  apperceived  by  the  child 
as  it  is  presented  ;  and  thus  that  it  should  strengthen  and  not, 
through  its  lack  of  connectedness  and  dissimilarity,  disorgan- 
ize or  make  disproportionate  this  many-sidedness  of  interests, 
and  consequently  weaken  the  character  of  the  child. 

Herbart  and  his  immediate  followers  prepared  a  scheme  ot 
concentration  of  studies,  that  of  the  unification  of  all  school 
instruction  upon  one  central  core  study,  either  literature 
or  literature  combined  with  history.  Some  groups  of  his 
followers,  notably  some  in  this  country,  have  elaborated 
schemes  of  coordination  of  studies.  Coordination  does  not 
seek  to  find  one  central  core  study,  but  accepts  a  given  num- 
ber,—  five  in  the  scheme  of  Commissioner  Harris,  —  selected 
for  logical  and  psychological  reasons,  as  of  equal  value. 
These  are  to  be  organized  so  that  the  material  is  arranged  in 
a  psychological  order  and  that  the  unities  between  the  sub- 
jects are  made  evident  and  preserved.  Various  forms  of 
concentration,  based  either  on  the  literary  and  historical 
studies,  or  on  nature  studies,  or,  where  combined  with  the 
Froebelian  influence,  on  social  activities  direct,  are  frequently 
employed  in  the  lower  grades.  In  the  higher  grades  few 
attempts,  save  at  the  coordination  of  studies,  have  been  tried. 

General  Method.  —  Independent  of  any  of  these  schemes 
is  the  idea  of  a  general  method  for  the  presentation  of  any 
subject  or  any  portion  of  a  subject; — a  method  based  upon 
the  nature  of  the  mind's  activity  and  taking  its  peculiar  force 
and  application  from  the  apperceptive  or  assimilative  character 
of  the  mind's  growth,  previously  described  as  the  basis  of  the 
entire  Herbartian  pedagogy.  Since  the  early  sense-real- 
ists a  general  method  had  been  sought ;  Herbart  was  the  first 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        637 

to  work  this  out  in  detail  so  that  it  becomes  a  method  for  the 
immediate  process  of  instruction  by  the  teacher.  This  method 
consists  in  a  given  series  of  steps,  determined  not  by  the 
character  of  the  material,  but  by  the  way  in  which  the 
human  mind  acts  and  human  consciousness  expands.  These 
steps  are  to  b.e  followed  in  every  unit  of  instruction,  which 
presumably  is  the  recitation,  though  particular  units  may  be 
determined  rather  by  the  subject-matter  than  by  time  limits. 
There  is  no  particular  virtue  in  these  steps  themselves,  nor  is 
the  goal  that  Herbart  aims  at  to  be  attained  by  the  mere 
formal  application  of  these  steps  to  a  recitation.  This 
method  is  a  mere  form  to  aid  in  the  realization  of  the  great 
end  of  instruction,  a  form  of  which  a  teacher  who  is  success- 
ful in  obtaining  that  end  may  be  in  entire  ignorance  and  in 
the  use  of  which  even  the  teacher  familiar  with  it  should 
most  often  be  unconscious. 

The  immediate  function  of  instruction  is  to  furnish  the  mind 
with  ideas,  to  establish  their  proper  relationships,  to  connect 
them  or  color  them  with  good  will  or  sympathy  that  will  lead 
to  moral  action.  The  concept  interest,  which  indicates  the  ac-< 
tivities  through  which  the  mind  expands  into  the  many-sided- 
ness of  character,  can  be  differentiated  into  certain  steps ;  — 
namely,  observation,  expectation,  demand,  action.  Conse- 
quently instruction,  which  aims  to  develop  this  many-sided 
interest,  "  must  universally  point  out,  connect,  teach,  philoso- 
phize " ;  and  "  in  matters  appertaining  to  sympathy  it  should 
be  observing,  continuous,  elevating,  and  active  in  the  sphere 
of  reality."  Corresponding  with  these  stages  are  the  formal 
steps  of  instruction,  —  clearness,  association,  system,  method, 
—  which  may  be  taken  as  the  basal,  at  least  the  basal  psycho- 
logical principle  of  the  recitation.  By  clearness  is  meant  the 
apprehension  of  a  single  object  —  practically  the  observation 
of  Pestalozzi.  Ziller,  who  elaborated  this  plan  of  Herbart's 
pedagogy  in  its  application  to  elementary  education,  divided 
this  step  into  two :  preparation,  —  the  calling  to  mind  of  such 


638  History  of  Education 

older  ideas  as  have  intimate  connection  with  the  new  to  be 
imparted,  and  their  arrangement  in  such  an  order  as  will 
explain  the  meaning  of  the  new  and  tend  to  make  lasting  the 
impression  which  it  makes ;  and  the  actual  process  of  pres- 
entation so  that  the  new  will  be  wholly  appropriated.  Here 
the  concrete  materials  are  finally  brought  together  so  that  a 
general  idea  is  found.  The  third  step  is  that  of  association 
—  the  actual  combination  of  the  new  with  the  old.  This  is 
the  elementary  stage  in  the  apperceptive  process,  and  this 
preliminary  fusion  is  largely  the  work  of  the  imagination. 
The  fourth  step  is  system,  —  the  complete  separation  of  the 
general  notion  from  its  concrete  embodiment  in  particulars. 
The  general  concept  is  now  to  be  related  in  a  systematic  way 
with  previously  acquired  knowledge,  so  as  to  make  an  organic 
whole.  This  is  the  work  of  reflection  and  requires  both  repe- 
tition and  definite  form  of  expression  in  language.  The  fifth 
step  is  method  or  application.  This  is  the  progressive  reflec- 
tion of  the  pupil  as  he  realizes  the  general  concept  gained 
through  activities :  the  child  must  make  application  of  his 
stock  of  ideas,  as  rapidly  as  they  are  gained,  so  far  as  is  pos- 
sible in  the  limited  activities  of  a  child's  life.  In  this  way 
the  child's  ideas  develop  and  are  fused  into  a  harmonious  and 
organic  mental  life,  out  of  which  grows,  through  suggestion 
and  direction,  his  active  life. 

This  is  but  a  brief  and  necessarily  superficial  account  of 
Herbart's  treatment  of  method,  for  no  man  has  written  with 
keener  insight  or  with  greater  suggestiveness  or  with  deeper 
philosophical  penetration  concerning  the  immediate  work  of 
instruction.  Thus  it  follows  both  from  his  philosophical  and 
psychological  foundations  of  education  and  from  his  practical 
discussions,  that  the  Herbartian  influence  reveals  itself  in  a 
strong  emphasis  upon  the  importance  of  instruction  and  con- 
sequently upon  the  technique  of  the  schoolroom,  especially 
of  the  recitation,  rather  than  on  the  general  spirit,  as  was  the 
case  with  Pestalozzianism.  He  has  truly  summarized  his  sys- 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education         639 

tern  and  thus  indicated  this  influence :  "  Instruction  will  form 
the  circle  of  thought,  and  education  the  character.  The  last 
is  nothing  without  the  first.  Herein  is  contained  the  whole 
sum  of  my  pedagogy." 

THE  FROEBELIAN  MOVEMENT.  General  Character- 
istics.—  The  Herbartian  movement  has  been  primarily  one 
of  educational  philosophy,  from  the  principles  of  which  have 
been  deduced  in  various  forms  the  appropriate  practices, 
varying  with  the  time,  place  and  interpreter.  On  the  con- 
trary the  Froebelian  movement  has  been  one  primarily  of 
practice  concerning  one  particular  stage  of  schooling,  —  the 
kindergarten,  —  from  which  has  grown  among  the  educa- 
tional public  at  large  a  gradual  appreciation  of  the  under- 
lying principles,  applicable  to  every  stage  of  instruction. 
One  great  contrast  in  point  of  view  and  in  point  of  emphasis, 
indicating  a  fundamental  divergence  in  theory,  differentiates 
the  Froebelian  from  the  Herbartian  movement.  This  latter, 
as  previously  indicated,  is  characterized  by  an  emphasis  upon 
the  importance  of  the  teaching  process  and  by  a  perfecting 
of  the  technique  of  instruction.  The  Froebelian  movement  is 
similarly  characterized  by  an  emphasis  upon  the  importance 
of  the  child,  upon  his  interests,  experiences,  and  activities  as 
the  starting  point  and  means  of  instruction,  and  by  an  im- 
provement in  the  spirit,  purpose,  "  atmosphere,"  and  morale 
of  the  schoolroom.  One  exalts  the  function  of  the  teacher ; 
the  other  exalts  the  importance  of  the  child.  Herbart  laid 
the  emphasis  upon  instruction  as  a  means  for  forming  moral 
character ;  Froebel  upon  the  stimulated  and  guided  activities 
of  the  child.  Pestalozzi,  Herbart,  Froebel  —  all  made  moral 
character  the  end  of  education.  Pestalozzi  would  secure  it 
rather  by  external  means,  — through  direct  training  in  moral 
virtues,  —  and  by  the  distinct  though  simultaneous  training 
of  "head,  heart,  and  hand."  Herbart  sought  the  same  end, 
through  instruction;  for  ideas  stimulated  desires,  desires 


640  History  of  Education 

action,  action  properly  guided  by  ideas  gained  from  "inter 
course  "  produced  character.  To  Froebel,  education,  begin- 
ning with  the  spontaneous  activity  of  the  child  and  leading 
from  that  to  ideas  and  permanently  formed  volitional  inter- 
ests, was  more  largely  an  emotional  and  volitional  than  an 
intellectual  training. 

In  educational  theory  Herbart  worked  ahead  from  the 
Pestalozzian  basis  of  training  in  sense  perception  to  the  train- 
ing in  apperception  and  the  complete  assimilation  of  the 
results  of  experience  into  a  well-formed  character.  Froebel, 
from  the  same  starting  point,  worked  back  to  the  more 
fundamental  basis  of  the  inherent  character  of  child  nature, 
as  revealed  in  an  earlier  period  of  unorganized  sensations, 
where  the  possibility  of  training  was  found  to  be  most 
largely  in  the  emotional-volitional  aspects  of  mental  activities. 
The  volitional,  not  as  with  Herbart  the  intellectual,  character 
of  the  human  mind  was  found  to  be  fundamental.  While 
the  practical  application  of  these  new  ideas  was  made  by 
Froebel  to  only  one  stage  of  education,  and  that  the  earliest, 
the  kindergarten,  the  principles  themselves  as  formulated  in 
his  more  philosophical  works,  are  fundamental  to  all  stages 
of  education.  The  attempt  to  make  this  application  to 
higher  stages  in  the  present  and  in  the  future  is  after 
all  the  true  Froebelian  movement.  Some  of  the  most 
profound  changes  in  educational  thought  and  practice  of 
present  times  are  in  accord  with,  if  not  in  response  to, 
these  demands  formulated  by  Froebel.  To  indicate,  the  far- 
reaching  character  of  these  principles  one  quotation  from 
Education  as  Development  will  suffice. 

"  Therefore,  that  which  is  to  have  true,  abiding  and  bless- 
ing, instructive  and  formative  effect  on  the  child  as  pupil  and 
scholar,  and  as  a  future  active  man,  viz.  independent  employ- 
ment —  must  not  only  be  founded  on  life  as  it  actually 
appears,  must  not  only  be  connected  with  life,  but  must  also 
form  itself  in  harmony  with  the  requirements  of  life,  of  the 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        641 

surroundings,  and  of  the  time,  and  with  what  they  offer.  It 
must  especially  have  an  arousing  and  wakening  effect  on  the 
inner  life  of  the  child  and  must  thus  spontaneously  germinate 
from  that  life.  This  is  the  nature  of  the  developing  educa- 
tional training  of  man,  to  follow  and  practice  which  I  regard 
as  the  indispensable  of  the  time  (founded  on  the  law  of 
nature  and  the  world,  on  the  necessary  laws  of  the  forma- 
tion of  life),  and  the  maintenance  of  which  I  recognize  as  the 
demand  of  life.  I  hold  it  in  its  general  comprehensive 
application  as  so  highly  important  to  the  life  of  humanity  and 
of  the  nations,  that  its  realization  and  accomplishment  (in 
proportion  to  the  degree  in  which  it  is  connected  with  simple 
unchangeable  laws)  should  be  the  task  of  all  education,  in  all 
relations  of  life,  and  under  all  circumstances." 

Herein  are  stated  the  two  phases  of  the  most  pronounced 
change  in  matters  of  instruction  in  our  own  times.  The  first 
of  these  concerns  the  curriculum,  and  posits  that  the  materials 
ofjinstruction,  if  they  are  really  and  vitally  to  produce  the 
development  of  the  child's  mind  and  nature,  must  be  selected 
from  life  as  it  now  is  and  as  it  affects  the  child  and  comes 
within  his  experience.  The  second  is  the  complementary  be- 
lief, that  if  education  is  to  produce  the  results  desired,  both 
individual  and  social,  the  effects  of  school  instruction  must 
relate  directly  to  life  as  it  now  is,  through  the  activities  of  the 
child  that  form  the  culmination  of  the  process  of  instruction. 

Relating  as  it  does  to  this  contemplation  of  the  whole 
problem  of  education  from  the  standpoint  of  the  child's 
nature,  to  this  conception  of  the  fundamental  nature  of  its 
volitional  character,  and  to  the  determination  of  all  other 
problems  of  education  from  this  one  principle  of  development 
through  self-activity,  the  Froebelian  movement,  aside  from 
the  kindergarten  aspect  of  it,  is  thus  even  less  well  defined  in 
its  influence  upon  school  work  and  consequently  more  diffi- 
cult to  trace  than  is  the  Herbartian  influence.  However,  it 
is  evident  from  this  introductory  statement  that  these  ideas 
permeate  all  modern  educational  thought.  In  general,  one 

2T 


642  History  of  Education 

may  say  that  whenever  the  emphasis  in  school  work  is  placed 
upon  the  activities  of  the  child  rather  than  upon  the  tech- 
nique of  the  process  of  instruction,  and  whenever  develop- 
ment of  character  and  of  personality  is  sought,  rather  than 
mere  impartation  of  information  and  training  of  intellec- 
tual abilities,  that  there  the  Froebelian  influence  is  to  be 
recognized. 

Friedrich  Wilhelm  August  Froebel  (1782-1852).  —  Of  all 
educational  reformers,  Froebel's  experience  as  well  as  his 
theories  most  nearly  resemble  those  of  Pestalozzi.  In  fact, 
both  his  novel  experiences  and  his  revolutionary  theories 
start  from  direct  contact  with  Pestalozzi.  Yet  his  life's 
activities  do  not  throw  so  much  light  on  his  ideas  as  do 
those  of  Pestalozzi;  for  Froebel's  theories  were  but  educa- 
tional expressions  of  the  dominant  philosophical  thought  that 
had  been  formulated  in  philosophical  form  early  in  his  life. 
Further  than  this,  his  life's  work  was  not  so  much  in  devel- 
oping these  on  their  logical  side  as  in  perfecting  their  appli- 
cation. On  the  other  hand  Froebel  possessed  a  power 
which  few  reformers  have  possessed,  least  of  all  Pestalozzi, 
of  crystallizing  theory  into  practice ;  of  interpreting  general 
principles  in  concrete  form  ;  of  both  stating  the  philosophy 
and  organizing  the  practical  application  of  new  educational 
doctrines.  Nevertheless,  Froebel's  practical  attempts  at 
institutional  administration,  in  putting  his  new  ideas  into 
operation,  were  like  those  of  the  earlier  reformer.  But  this 
was  due  not  so  much  to  lack  of  practical  ability,  —  though 
he,  like  other  geniuses,  found  it  difficult  to  work  with  other 
people,  —  but  rather  to  the  troubled  character  of  the  times 
in  which  he  worked,  and  to  the  fact  that  the  way  of  the 
reformer,  since  he  is  a  transgressor,  is  hard. 

Froebel's  early  education  was  fragmentary  and  without 
definite  purpose.  It  was  unsatisfactory,  as  he  later  said, 
because  there  was  no  unity  whatever  between  the  subjects 
taught  and  no  connection  between  the  subjects  of  instruction 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        643 

and  life.  His  youth  was  divided  between  university  work  and 
practical  scientific  work,  for  he  was  in  turn  an  apprentice 
to  a  forester,  an  accountant  on  large  estates,  a  surveyor,  and 
later  a  museum  assistant  in  geological  sciences.  Out  of  all 
this  experience  came  two  fundamental  results, — a  profound 
love  for  nature  and  a  conviction  that  throughout  nature  one 
found  revealed  that  unity  of  idea  and  realization  that  was 
preached  in  the  philosophy  of  the  university  but  nowhere 
found  in  educational  work.  At  twenty-three  he  was  per-  ; 
suaded  to  become  a  teacher  in  the  Pestalozzian  Institute  at 
Frankfort,  and  thus  discovered  his  life  calling.  After  two 
years  here  he  became  private  tutor  to  three  boys  whom  he 
took  to  Pestalozzi's  Institute  at  Yverdun,  where  he  remained 
in  association,  though  not  in  immediate  organic  connection, 
for  two  years  more.  From  this  experience  came  a  devotion 
to  educational  reform,  for  which  he  now  further  prepared 
himself  by  completing  his  university  course.  After  having 
participated  in  the  effort  to  overthrow  Napoleon,  —  an  attempt 
upon  which  Froebel  entered  with  great  enthusiasm  because 
it  was  a  movement  in  the  political  sphere  toward  that  unity 
for  which  Froebel  ever  strove,  —  he  gave  up,  in  1816,  his  posi- 
tion as  curator  in  the  Berlin  Museum  and  undertook  his  work 
of  educational  reform.  To  this  he  was  inspired  by  the  com- 
plete lack  of  unity  and  clear  purpose  in  existing  educational 
work,  by  his  experience  with  the  Pestalozzian  movement, 
and  by  his  discovery  of  the  anity  in  the  processes  of  nature. 
In  a  peasant's  cottage,  with  five  little  children,  he  opened 
his  "  Universal  German  Educational  Institute."  This  was 
the  institute  at  Keilhau,  whither  it  was  removed  in  1817, 
where  for  many  years  Froebel  worked  along  the  line  of  edu- 
cational betterment,  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  Pestalozzi. 
Here  he  met  the  same  opposition  from  established  authorities, 
strengthened  now  by  the  political  opposition  to  all  revolution- 
ary ideas.  Though  the  work  was  far  more  substantial  than 
the  similar  work  of  Pestalozzi,  because  supported  by  far 


644  History  of  Education 

wider  philosophical  knowledge  and  by  greater  practical 
ability  among  the  assistants,  yet  Froebel  revealed  a  similar 
lack  of  power  in  practical  management.  The  scope  of  his 
educational  work  was  far  wider  than  that  of  Pestalozzi,  and 
was  directed  largely  toward  secondary  studies.  It  was 
not  until  1826,  after  the  appearance  of  his  most  general 
treatise,  The  Education  of  Man,  that  Froebel,  directed 
i  thereto  especially  by  the  treatise  of  Comenius  in  that  subject, 
k  turned  his  special  attention  to  the  educational  possibilities  of 
\:the  earliest  years  of  childhood.  Froebel  had  ever  been  a 
close  student  of  children,  and  had  even  then  made  further 
progress  in  the  use  of  play  and  the  spontaneous  activities  of 
children  than  had  ever  been  done  previously.  A  Govern- 
ment inspector  was  sent  in  1825  on  account  of  the  supposed 
revolutionary  character  of  the  work  of  the  institute.  His 
report,  together  with  a  plan  for  a  new  institute  issued  by 
Froebel  in  1829,  brought  into  greater  prominence  than  had 
the  philosophical  work  of  1826  his  fundamental  principle. 
This  was,  that  children  are  creative  rather  than  receptive 
creatures  and  that  all  educational  work  should  be  based  upon 
this  inherent  tendency  of  children  to  express  themselves  in 
action.  To  quote  but  a  portion  of  one  sentence  from  the 
report  of  a  presumably  hostile  inspector :  — 

"  Self -activity  of  the  mind  is  the  first  law  of  this  instruc- 
tion ;  therefore  the  kind  of  instruction  given  here  does  not 
make  the  young  mind  a  strong  box,  into  which,  as  early  as 
possible,  all  kinds  of  coins  of  the  most  different  values  and 
coinage,  such  as  are  now  current  in  the  world,  are  stuffed ; 
but  slowly,  continuously,  gradually,  and  always  inwardly,  that 
is,  according  to  a  connection  found  in  the  nature  of  the  human 
mind,  the  instruction  steadily  goes  on,  without  any  tricks, 
from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  from  the  concrete  to  the 
abstract,  so  well  adapted  to  the  child  and  his  needs  that  he 
goes  as  readily  to  his  learning  as  to  his  play." 

During  some  eight  or  ten  years  of  unsuccessful  practical 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        645 

attempts,  —  one  of  them  at  Burgdorf,  where  Pestalozzi  had 
made  educational  experimentation  famous,  —  Froebel  crys- 
tallized his  ideas  concerning  the  education  of  the  earliest 
years.  In  1837,  in  the  little  village  of  Blankenburg,  near 
Keilhau,  he  put  into  operation  the  first  of  these  new  institu- 
tions, to  which  two  years  later  he  gave  the  name  of  kinder- 
garten. To  this  new  educational  propaganda,  Froebel 
devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life ;  for  here  in  this  virgin  field 
the  new  educational  ideas  were  more  clearly  expressed  and 
more  readily  realized.  During  the  period  immediately  fol- 
lowing the  establishment  of  the  first  kindergarten  was  pro- 
duced the  greater  part  of  the  Froebelian  literature.  This 
literature  was  chiefly  devoted  to  the  practical  elaboration  of 
these  new  kindergarten  ideas  and  to  a  popularizing  of  the 
institution  itself.  This  latter  phase  of  his  work  made  slow 
progress,  and  from  1851  to  1861  their  very  establishment  was 
prohibited  by  the  Prussian  government,  on  account  of  the  sup- 
posed revolutionary  character  of  the  kindergartens.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  practical  work  elaborated  by  Froebel  yet 
remains,  with  slight  modification,  the  basis  of  kindergarten 
methods. 

Character  of  his  Writings.  —  In  the  following  brief  state- 
ment of  the  leading  Froebelian  principles  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that,  notwithstanding  Froebel's  unusual  power  of 
making  the  practical  interpretation  of  his  abstract  ideas,  his 
philosophical  writings  present  peculiar  difficulties  of  interpre- 
tation and  are  characterized  by  a  lack  of  clearness  and  by  an 
indefiniteness  quite  as  great  as  that  of  Pestalozzi,  though  of 
a  very  different  kind.  While  of  a  philosophical  character, 
his  ideas  are  expressed  in  emotional  rather  than  in  scientific 
form.  Since  the  idealism  of  Froebel  verges  on  the  trans 
cendental  and  mystical,  exact  interpretation  is  often  impos 
sible.  Froebel  was  devoutly  religious  ;  but,  influenced  by  his 
philosophy  and  his  love  of  nature,  his  religion  was  almost 
pantheistic  in  thought,  and  in  expression  bordered  on  the 


646  History  of  Education 

ecstatic.  There  results  a  symbolism,  even  a  search  foi 
occult  interpretations  in  the  simplest  phenomenal  relations, 
that  is  peculiarly  foreign  to  an  age  so  strongly  scientific,  even 
positivistic,  as  was  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
To  this  fact  is  largely  due,  not  only  the  difficulty  of  interpret- 
ing Froebel,  but  also  the  lack  of  sympathy  for  and  even  the 
pronounced  hostility  to  many  ideas  fundamentally  acceptable. 
But  even  at  best  Froebel's  philosophy  and  psychology  leave 
much  to  be  completed  and  much  to  be  restated  entirely. 
That  work  of  restatement  of  principle  and  completion  of 
detail  is  the  task  of  educational  thought  of  the  present. 
From  Froebel,  even  more  than  from  Herbart  or  from  Pesta- 
lozzi,  have  sprung  the  chief  streams  of  present  educational 
thought. 

However  much  Froebel  emphasized  the  principle  of  unity 
as  the  all-important  one,  there  does  not  exist  in  his  writings 
the  unity  of  a  system  of  educational  thought  which  can  be 
expounded.  Such  unity  as  does  exist  is  to  be  found  in  per- 
manent and  ever  present  principles  of  interpretation  of  life, 
of  reality  and  of  educational  problems,  and  in  the  tendency 
and  purpose  of  all  his  thought. 

The  Law  of  Unity,  or  Inner  Connectedness  as  the  Basis  of 
Education.  —  Froebel's  educational  thought  is  founded  pri- 
marily upon  a  philosophy,  as  Herbart's  was  upon  a  psychol- 
ogy >  though,  to  be  sure,  there  was  also  in  the  former  case  an 
accompanying  psychology  and  in  the  latter  an  accompanying 
philosophy.  In  regard  to  both  philosophy  and  psychology, 
the  two  educational  reformers  radically  disagreed.  It  was 
from  the  dominant  idealistic  philosophy  of  Kant,  Schelling, 
Hegel,  even  in  the  extreme  form  given  by  Fichte,  against 
which  Herbart  ever  protests,  that  Froebel  starts.  The  fun- 
damental tenet  of  this  entire  philosophical  movement  was  to 
find  the  explanation  of  reality  and,  on  its  practical  side,  of 
life,  in  the  fundamental  unity  of  existence  both  of  nature  and 
man  in  the  absolute  spirit.  The  absolute  is  no  longer  mat 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        647 

ter,  it  is  spirit  —  self-conscious  spirit ;  and  in  this  self-con- 
scious spirit  are  found  both  the  purpose  and  the  presupposition 
of  the  world,  the  explanation  both  of  the  origin  and  the 
meaning  of  existence  —  both  of  man  and  of  nature.  This 
gives  the  unity  which  furnishes  the  explanation  of  the  mani- 
foldness  of  nature  and  of  life,  for  the  only  real  differences  are 
those  of  the  units  or  subunities  within  the  all-encompassing 
unity  which  gives  meaning  to  all  these  seeming  diversities. 
To  Froebel  then  this  spiritual  essence,  or  reality,  was  the,( 
source  of  all  life,  of  all  existence ;  and  it  was  the  purpose  of  '• 
education  to  expand  the  life  of  the  individual  and  compre- 
hend this  existence  through  participation  in  this  all-pervad- 
ing spirit.  This  inner-connectedness  furnished  the  explanation 
of  all  reality  ;  the  realization  of  it  in  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual constitutes  the  aim  of  education.  The  opening  para- 
graph of  The  Education  of  Man  contains  the  whole  theory  in 
essence. 

"  In  all  things  there  lives  and  reigns  an  eternal  law.  To 
him  whose  mind,  through  disposition  and  faith,  is  filled,  pene- 
trated, and  quickened  with  the  necessity  that  this  cannot  be 
otherwise,  as  well  as  to  him  whose  clear,  calm  mental  vision 
beholds  the  inner  in  the  outer  and  through  the  outer,  and  sees 
the  outer  proceeding  with  logical  necessity  from  the  essence 
of  the  inner,  this  law  has  been  and  is  announced  with  equal 
clearness  and  distinctness  in  nature  (the  external),  in  the 
spirit  (the  internal),  and  in  life  which  unites  the  two.  This 
all-pervading  law  is  necessarily  based  on  an  all-pervading, 
energetic,  living,  self-conscious,  and  hence  eternal  Unity. 
This  fact,  as  well  as  the  Unity  itself,  is  again  vividly  recog- 
nized, either  through  faith  or  through  insight,  with  equal 
clearness  and  comprehensiveness ;  therefore,  a  quietly  observ- 
ant human  mind,  a  thoughtful,  clear  human  intellect,  has 
never  failed,  and  will  never  fail,  to  recognize  this  Unity. 
This  Unity  is  God.  All  things  have  come  from  the  Divine 
Unity,  from  God,  and  have  their  origin  in  the  Divine  Unity, 
in  God  alone.  God  is  the  sole  source  of  all  things.  In  all 
things  there  lives  arid  reigns  the  Divine  Unity,  God.  All 


648  History  of  Education 

things  live  and  have  their  being  in  and  through  the  Divine 
Unity,  in  and  through  God.  All  things  are  only  through  the 
divine  effluence  that  lives  in  them.  The  divine  effluence  that 
lives  in  each  thing  is  the  essence  of  each  thing." 

Every  individual  object  and  being  participates  in  this  "all- 
pervading,  self-conscious  unity,"  which  gives  meaning  to  the 
individual  object  and  to  the  individual  life.  To  come  into  a 
realization  of  this  unity,  to  develop  the  "  inner-connection," 
to  expand  this  germ  of  the  universal  that  lies  in  each  one,  to 
develop  this  "  divine  essence  "  until  one  partakes  of  its  fullness 
—  this  is  education.  For,  as  he  says  elsewhere,  "  It  is  the 
destiny  and  life  work  of  all  things  to  unfold  their  essence, 
hence  their  divine  being." 

The  intense  religious  feeling  that  pervades  all  of  Froebel's 
writings  thus  finds  its  explanation  ;  it  is  not  something  extra- 
neous —  tacked  on,  as  it  were.  It  is  the  very  breath  of  life 
of  his  system.  Every  being  or  reality  participates  in  this 
essence  and  to  that  extent  is  capable  of  revealing  it  or,  if 
conscious  existence,  is  capable  of  attaining  to  it.  Hence 
every  object  of  nature  can  reveal  God.  The  object  of  educa- 
tion is  the  realization  of  this  destiny,  the  development  of  this 
essence  into  unity  with  the  absolute.  "  For  nature  as  well  as 
all  existing  things  is  a  manifestation,  a  revelation  of  God. 
The  purpose  of  all  existence  is  to  reveal  God.  All  existing 
things  are  only  through  and  because  of  the  divine  essence 
that  is  in  them."  The  constant  repetition  of  this  and  similar 
ideas  is  not  cant ;  it  is  a  part  of  his  philosophy,  and  with 
Froebel  philosophy  was  not  a  theory,  but  life.  In  fact, 
this  religious  belief  is  identical  with  the  fundamental  law  of 
inner-connectedness,  and  it  in  turn  becomes  the  basis  and 
gives  the  purpose  to  education. 

In  his  Edtication  by  Development  he  states  the  reasons 
why  the  law  of  connection  or  of  unity  is  the  fundamental  law 
of  education.  In  substance,  his  statement  is  as  follows : 
d)  Through  it  we  thoroughly  comprehend  the  nature  of  the 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        649 

child.  \2)  By  it  the  individual,  the  child,  is  recognized  as  the 
central  point  of  all  relations  of  life.  (3)  Through  it  we  obtain 
a  true  and  evident  purpose  in  education  and  a  suitable  means 
and  method  for  accomplishing  this  aim.  (4)  Education  founded 
on  this  law  is  practical,  since  it  demands  immediate  accom- 
plishment and  application.  (5)  Such  an  education  is  suited 
to  this  practical  age,  which  demands  the  realization  in  life  of 
the  highest  ideals  formulated  from  experience.  (6)  Such  an 
education  adapts  itself  to  every  age  of  life  and  every  stage  in 
the  child's  development.  (7)  This  education  of  unification  is 
peculiarly  appropriate  to  an  age  of  isolation,  contrariety,  and 
individualism  such  as  the  present.  (8)  Such  an  education 
would  make  clear  and  real  in  life  the  highest  philosophical 
and  ethical  thought.  (9)  Such  an  education  would  check  the 
growing  proletarianism  and  the  deadening  and  mechanical 
effect  of  an  age  of  industrialism,  since  it  unfolds,  strengthens, 
and  develops  the  power  of  the  child  until  it  can  maintain 
itself  in  independent  personality,  since  it  teaches  him  how  to 
treat  material  according  to  its  nature,  gives  to  work  its  high 
significance  as  creative  activity  and  cultivates  the  power  of 
thought,  of  will  and  of  action.  Thus  it  lays  the  true  foun- 
dation for  character. 

From  his  belief  in  the  reality  ct  tnis  unity  Froebel  drew  his 
belief  that  nature  revealed  Goa  to  the  child ;  hence  there  pro- 
ceeded both  his  emphasis  upon  the  use  of  natural  phenomena 
and  nature  study  with  the  child  and  his  symbolic  presentation 
of  this  material.  He  saw  the  unity  in  organic  life,  and  thus 
became  one  of  the  earlier  advocates  of  the  theory  of  organic 
evolution ;  from  this  he  was  led  to  place  an  altogether  new 
emphasis  upon  the  study  of  nature,  of  botany,  zoology,  etc., 
by  the  child.  He  believed  that  the  same  unity  was  to  be 
found  in  the  inorganic  world  and  that  it  became  a  symbol  to 
the  child  of  all  the  higher  unity  of  thought  and  life.  Conse- 
quently from  this  conception  he  derived  his  ideas  of  the  use  of 
the  "  gifts  "  in  the  kindergarten.  In  that  which  he  drew  from 


650  History  of  Education 

his  own  feeling  of  the  universal  as  expressed  in  inorganic  forms, 
—  as  in  crystals,  —  there  is  much  that  is  fanciful ;  the  more  so 
when  the  fundamental  philosophical  thought  is  not  at  all  under- 
stood. Between  the  individual  and  the  race,  which  form  in 
reality  but  one  great  organic  life  which  the  school  should  epito- 
mize, is  to  be  found  a  higher  unity.  The  school  thus  becomes 
an  association  for  the  child  wherein  he  discovers  in  a  simpli- 
fied and  idealized  form  all  the  relations  of  society.  The  true 
function  of  the  school  as  a  means  for  social  progress  as  well 
as  the  instrument  of  individual  development  is  thus  revealed. 
In  the  life  of  the  individual  there  is  the  same  unity;  that 
between  the  stages  of  infancy,  childhood,  youth,  manhood, 
which  is  so  set  at  naught  by  the  school  in  its  failure  to  com- 
prehend this  unity  that  education  itself  becomes  but  a  form. 
Even  more  thoroughly  than  did  Herbart,  Froebel  recognized 
\  this  unity  and  the  organic  connection  between  the  various  sub- 
jects of  study  as  a  basis  for  a  necessary  reorganization  of  the 
school  curriculum.  Hence  the  culture  epoch  theory  or,  more 
exactly,  the  idea  of  correlation  of  studies,  has  received  support 
among  Froebelians,  though  with  no  adherence  to  particular 
schemes,  as  among  Herbartians.  In  a  similar  way,  this  law 
of  inner  connectedness  —  the  unity  of  the  objective  and  the 
subjective  —  gave  to  Froebel  his  conception  of  mental  growth 
and  led  to  an  emphasis  upon  the  unity  of  the  knowing,  feeling, 
and  willing  activities,  that  is  quite  as  fundamental  and, 
although  not  definitely  organized  by  Froebel  in  psychological 
terms,  much  nearer  the  modern  scientific  views  of  the  nature 
of  the  mind's  growth  and  activities  than  is  the  Herbartian 
psychology. 

At  every  point  Froebel  found  a  unity  between  thought  and 
life,  which  is  to  be  developed  by  education.  Education  be- 
comes the  continuous  progressive  adjustment  of  the  individual 
to  the  larger  life,  which  is  his  by  destiny  and  in  which  he  must 
find  his  being,  his  true  self. 

Development  as  the  Process  of  Education.  —  The  philosophi- 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        651 

cal  idea  of  unity  demands  as  its  accompaniment  the  idea  of 
continuity  of  generation  of  all  things.  The  individualism  of 
the  period  of  Rousseau  gives  way  to  the  idea  of  organic  unity 
and  development.  Philosophically,  reality  now  becomes  the 
spiritual,  —  mind,  —  which  is  absolute  and  self -determining. 
This  self-determination  applies  not  only  to  the  origin  or  the 
existence  of  things,  but  also  to  the  process  by  which  the  world 
of  manifestation  is  sustained.  The  scientific  expression  of 
the  dominant  idea,  of  which  the  English  scientists,  Spencer, 
Darwin,  Wallace,  later  elaborated  the  formulae  of  the  process, 
gave  the  theory  of  organic  evolution.  This  idea  Froebel 
seized  and,  first  of  all,  applied  to  education.  Not  only  is 
this  found  in  his  theoretical  statements  concerning  the  nature 
and  process  of  education,  but  it  also  gives  deeper  meaning  to 
the  use  of  the  gifts  and  the  concrete  activities  of  the  school- 
room ;  for  a  primary  principle  in  both  is  that  each  following 
activity  includes  each  preceding  and  earlier  one.  "All  that 
follows  must  go  out  from  that  which  precedes,"  becomes  al- 
most cabalistic  in  its  meaning  in  his  various  writings,  in  that 
it  contains  so  much  meaning  that  is  occult  to  the  casual  reader. 
In  his  Education  of  Man  the  general  philosophical  idea  is 
thus  stated  as  usual  in  religious  form.  "  God  creates  and 
works  productively  in  uninterrupted  continuity.  Each  thought 
of  God  is  a  work,  a  deed,  a  product,  and  each  thought  of  God 
continues  to  work  with  creative  power  in  endless  productive 
activity  to  all  eternity."  Evolution  is  the  tendency  of  this  unity 
—  spirit  —  to  work  itself  out  into  the  manifold  activities 
of  spirit  and  of  the  accompanying  phenomenal  expressions. 
Thus  education  is  but  a  phase  of  the  general  process  of  evolu- 
tion ;  it  is  a  development  by  which  the  individual  comes  into 
realization  of  the  life  of  the  all-encompassing  unity  of  which 
he  is  but  a  unit ;  a  development  by  which  his  life  broadens 
until  it  has  related  itself  to  nature,  until  it  enters  sympatheti- 
cally into  all  the  activities  of  society,  until  it  participates  in 
the  achievements  of  the  race  and  the  aspirations  of  humanity 


652  History  of  Education 

Though  these  ideas  are  usually  expressed  in  abstract  philo- 
sophical form,  and  though  he  never  arranged  them  in  a  logical 
system,  Froebel  also  elaborated  a  series  of  exercises,  called  gifts 
and  occupations,  through  which  this  unified  development  could 
be  brought  about  in  the  hands  of  a  skillful  teacher.  The  activi- 
ties called  for  by  the  gifts  and  occupations  are  not  merely 
useful  to  the  teacher  and  beneficial  to  the  child  ;  to  those  who 
understand  and  enter  into  Froebel's  point  of  view,  they  have 
a  far  deeper  meaning,  for  they  offer  means,  most  carefully 
worked  out  with  profound  philosophical  insight,  for  produc- 
ing, or  at  least  assisting,  this  development  of  the  child's  mind 
and  spirit.  And  yet  it  must  be  noted  that  the  extent  to 
which  this  development  is  attained  does  not  depend  upon  the 
mere  use  of  these  exercises  as  prescribed  by  the  master,  how- 
ever much  emphasis  is  placed  upon  the  self-activity  of  the 
child,  but  upon  the  extent  to  which  the  teacher  possesses  this 
same  insight  into  life  and  reality,  and  the  extent  to  which  the 
child's  mind  is  possessed  by  the  same  motive  and  conscious- 
ness of  this  unity  of  existence.  The  use  of  the  gifts  and 
occupations,  merely  to  interest  the  child  in  his  environment 
and  give  him  a  knowledge  of  it  or  even  to  relate  him  to  it,  is 
not  the  realization  of  the  real  design  according  to  Froebel. 
Only  when  these  gifts  and  occupations,  in  fact  any  school 
activities,  are  used  upon  the  basis  of  this  principle  of  unity 
and  this  process  of  development  are  their  true  educational 
values  obtained.  Then  will  be  realized  the  Froebelian  truths  : 
"  That  which  lies  in  the  whole,  lies  in  the  smallest  part ;  thus, 
that  which  lies  in  humanity  as  a  whole  also  expresses  itself  even 
in  the  smallest  and  youngest  of  its  children.  And  further,  that 
thus,  that  which  lies  in  humanity  as  a  whole  and  expresses 
itself  even  in  the  child,  slumbers  in  the  child  as  essence  and 
germ,  makes  itself  known  again  in  the  smallest  detail  of  its 
nature  ;  indeed,  definitely  shows  itself  therein  to  a  clear  spirit- 
ual eye." 

The;  essential  idea  of.  the  Education  of  Man  Froebel  states  as 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education         653 

follows :  "  God  neither  ingrafts  nor  inoculates.  He  develops 
the  most  trivial  and  imperfect  things  in  continuously  ascend- 
ing series,  and  in  accordance  with  eternal,  self-grounded, 
and  self-developing  laws."  Education  is  but  the  realization 
of  the  evolutionary  process  in  its  highest  stage  as  revealed  in 
the  individual  human  being.  Thus  Froebel,  first  of  all,  states 
the  view  of  education  which  is  yet  to  prevail. 

Self-activity  as  the  Method  of  the  Process.  —  In  emphasiz- 
ing the  principles  of  self-activity  as  the  method  by  which 
education  —  this  development  previously  described  —  takes 
place,  Froebel  again  indicated  that  he  participated  in  the 
dominant  thought-life  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  and 
that  he  was  the  first  to  make  application  of  these  ideas,  com- 
mon to  philosophy  and  to  science,  to  the  problems  of  educa- 
tion. In  the  department  of  scientific  thought  the  old  idea  of 
the  hard-and-fast  classification  of  forms  of  life  had  given 
place  to  a  more  general  belief  in  the  idea  of  development  of 
lower  forms  into  higher  and  of  the  connectedness  of  all 
forms  of  life.  In  this  respect  the  general  introduction  of  the 
term  "  biology  "  to  indicate  a  general  science  of  living  forms, 
just  at  the  opening  of  the  century,  is  significant.  At  this 
time  (1802-1809)  Lamarck  had  published  his  views  concern- 
ing the  forces  that  produced  this  development  of  higher  forms 
of  life  from  lower  and  thus  made  clear  one  of  the  principles 
that  connect  all  forms  of  life.  This  was  the  theory  of  use 
and  disuse  of  organs,  which  was  but  a  special  application  of 
the  principle  of  self-activity.  Previously,  evolution  had  been 
explained  by  such  scientists  or  philosophers  as  believed  in  it 
by  the  varying  influences  of  external  conditions,  such  as 
climate.  With  Lamarck,  the  animal,  the  organism  itself, 
became  the  chief  factor.  As  the  use  of  the  arm  or  of  any 
particular  muscle  of  the  body  will  produce  a  corresponding 
development,  so  the  effort  of  an  organism  to  use  any  organ 
in  a  particular  direction  will  produce  a  corresponding  devel- 
opment ;  and  conversely,  its  disuse  will  cause  a  proportionate 


654  History  of  Education 

atrophy.  However  unsatisfactory  the  theory  might  be  in 
explaining  the  origin  of  forms  and  however  limited  its 
application  might  be  to  the  plant  world,  this  was  the  first 
general  explanation  offered  of  the  origin  of  diversity  of  forms 
and  of  the  principle  of  their  growth.  In  philosophical 
thought  these  limitations  of  one  particular  application  of 
the  idea  presented  no  insuperable  difficulties  ;  for  this  ten- 
dency to  use  organs  in  any  one  direction  was  but  one  mani- 
festation of  the  principle  of  activity  through  which  and  by 
virtue  of  the  possession  of  which  the  individual  organism 
participated  in  the  all-pervading  essence  that  gave  meaning 
to  all  material  existence.  The  dominant  philosophy  of  the 
times,  especially  as  Froebel  accepted  it,  held  that  there  is 
a  fundamental  unity  in  all  things,  a  permanent  principle  in 
all  changes  and  forms  of  life.  There  is  a  single  for- 
mative energy  which  reveals  itself  in  nature,  that  is  in 
external  life,  as  force,  and  in  consciousness  of  the  inner 
life,  as  mind.  This  energy,  as  intelligence  in  the  individual, 
builds  up  for  itself  its  own  world.  The  self  —  the  mind  —  is 
not  so  much  possessed  of  activity  as  it  is  activity.  Through 
this  activity  it  realizes  itself,  builds  up  its  own  world,  be- 
comes conscious  of  itself,  and  works  out  its  own  destiny. 
This  is  true  both  in  the  intellectual  and  moral  application. 

These  ideas  are  given  different  formulation,  different  em- 
phasis, and  different  combination  in  the  systems  elaborated 
by  the  various  philosophers  mentioned,  and  in  order  to  under- 
stand Froebel  clearly  a  mastery  of  the  thought  suggested 
here  in  but  a  single  point  needs  to  be  worked  out  in  the 
detail  impossible  in  a  brief  text-book.  The  point  to  be  noted 
is  that  Froebel  but  applied  to  the  problems  of  education 
the  idea  that  was  the  vital  element  of  the  thought  of  the 
period. 

In  connection  with  Froebel's  practical  work,  it  has  been 
noted  that  early  in  his  experience  he  had  realized  the  signifi- 
cance of  this  principle  when  applied  to  educational  method 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        655 

At  Keilhau  self -activity  of  the  mind  was  the  first  law   of 
instruction.     That  is,  the  child  was  regarded  as  a  creative  / 
rather  than  a  receptive  being,  and  all  educational  processes 
were  made  to  take  as  their  starting  point,  the  natural  inclina-  \ 
tion  of  the  child  to  express  himself  in  action. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  fundamental  idea  of  unity,  the 
significance  and  meaning  of  self-activity  were  also  involved. 
Each  individual  thing  or  being  participates  in  the  unity  of  the 
whole  through  this  very  tendency  to  "unfold  its  essence,"  to 
develop  its  nature,  and  to  do  this  by  realizing  the  connected- 
ness with  its  environment,  with  life  as  a  whole  and  its  unity 
with  the  absolute.  This  unfolding  of  essence  or  develop- 
ment of  nature  is  through  forces  inherent  in  the  individual, 
through  self -activity.  Self-activity — this  tendency  to  realize 
its  destiny,  to  accomplish  its  end  as  an  element  in  this  com- 
plex organism,  reality,  implanted  by  nature  in  each  individual 

—  is  the  most  fundamental  characteristic  of  all  life.     This  is 
even  more  clearly  seen  when  the  process  of  development  is 
considered  ;  for  self-activity  becomes  the  method  of  spiritual 
evolution,  just  as  later  Darwin  emphasizes  natural  selection 
as  the  chief  method  of  biological  evolution,  or  as  Lamarck  had 
earlier  emphasized  use  and  disuse  as   the  most  prominent 
method.     To  the  philosophy  of  the  times  self-activity  became 
the  method  of  all  evolution,  since  to  it  the  spiritual  —  mind 

—  is  reality ;  and  it  is  by  this  alone  that  the  world  of  mani- 
festation is  sustained. 

A  few  words  further  will  indicate  somewhat  more  clearly 
the  educational  significance  of  self-activity  as  the  principle  of 
method.     Froebel  emphasizes  at  every  point  that  self-activity 
is  the  process  by  which  the  individual  realizes  his  own  nature, 
by  which  he  builds  up  his  own  world  or  representation  of  the 
external,  and  by  which   he  unites  and  harmonizes  the  two. 
Thus  the  life  of  the  individual  is  the  process:  (i)  by  which  i 
he   knows  nature,  or  the  objective   world ;    (2)  as  through  [ 
this  he  comes  to  know  himself,  by  which  he  comes  to  know    : 


656  History  of  Education 

(his  own  nature ;  and  (3)  by  which  he  becomes  a  part  of  the 
life  of  both  nature  and  humanity.  In  all  of  this,  if  there  is 
any  true  realization  of  the  self,  of  the  possibilities  of  individual 
character  —  the  individual  has  determined  his  own  activities 
and  is  free.  So  far  as  he  works  under  compulsion  of  external 
force  he  fails  to  realize  this  unity. 

Self-activity  —  activity  determined  by  one's  own  motives, 
iarising  out  of  one's  own  interests,  sustained  by  one's  own 
power  —  can  alone  produce  this  evolution  of  mind,  can  alone 
''secure  that  which  is  held  to  be  the  aim  of  education.  Such 
activity  in  a  way  is  compelled,  since  it  is  in  response  to  the 
inherent  nature  of  being  and  of  the  individual ;  but  as  the 
individual  responds  only  in  obedience  to  the  force  felt  within 
his  own  nature,  and  not  to  one  from  without,  such  activity  is 
free  —  it  is  self  activity.  Because  such  activities  are  free,  and 
at  the  same  time  take  place  according  to  law,  —  the  laws  of 
one's  own  nature,  the  laws  of  mind,  —  it  is  possible  to  formu- 
late them  and  to  accept  them  as  a  guide  to  all  educational 
work. 

Thus  it  follows  that  all  processes  of  instruction  must  start 
from  or  originate  with  this  volitional  interest  of  the  child. 
Beginning  with  his  spontaneous  activities,  action  may  be  sus- 
tained and  may  be  stimulated  toward  certain  ends  that  have 
far  more  permanent  value  than  such  activities  undirected  or 
uninfluenced. 

From  these  same  general  principles,  especially  this  con- 
nectedness of  the  spiritual  with  the  material,  or  this  realiza- 
tion of  the  nature  of  self  in  the  world  of  externals,  it  follows 
that  no  such  process  of  instruction  — starting  as  it  must  from 
some  activity  springing  from  the  nature  of  the  child  —  can 
be  complete  or  can  have  its  full  educative  value  until  it  has 
had  some  realization  in  action,  until  it  has  to  some  extent 
modified  conduct.  Any  impression  upon  the  mind  is  wasted 
unless  it  has  had  its  appropriate  physical  reaction.  Modern 
science  would  put  this  in  very  different  form  from  that  of  the 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        657 

philosophy  of  Froebel,  but  the  thought  is  the  same  and  in 
its  educational  application  it  was  formulated  by  Froebel 
long  ago. 

Not  only  does  the  tendency  inherent  in  the  child's  nature 
relate  to  conduct  and  action  in  the  physical  sense,  the  child 
reveals  the  same  spontaneous  effort  to  indicate  its  conception  ) 
of  things,  to  reveal  the  processes  of  its  own  mind,  —  that  is,  ( 
its  thought.  It  attempts  through  this  revelation  to  bring 
about  a  harmony  between  the  world  of  thought  and  the  world 
of  external  reality.  Such  spontaneous  efforts  constitute  self- 
activity,  and  give  to  the  teacher  the  opportunity  for  instruc- 
tion ;  that  is,  for  creating  a  fuller  harmony  between  the  inner 
and  the  outer,  between  thought  and  external  world,  than  the 
child  unaided  would  be  able  to  do. 

Froebel,  speaking  of  self-activity,  says :  "  The  good  results 
of  all  true  education  depend  on  the  careful  notice,  fostering, 
development,  strengthening,  and  cultivation  of  this  feeling 
on  the  part  of  the  child  that  he  is  a  whole,  and  yet  also  a 
part  of  all  life ;  and  on  the  avoidance  of  every  violation, 
clouding,  or  disturbance  of  it."  Thus  for  the  school,  self- 
activity  means  this  desire  of  the  child  to  enter  into  the  life  of 
others  and  the  life  around  it ;  the  desire  to  help,  to  find  out, 
to  discover,  to  participate  in  common  activities,  to  create,  to 
discover  the  identity  or  connection  between  itself  and  the 
activities  and  processes  of  others  —  the  discovery  which  con- 
stitutes knowledge.  These  are  all  forms  of  self-activity,  and 
are  to  be  seized  upon  as  the  sole  motives  to  those  school  pro- 
cesses that  the  teacher  wishes  to  make  educative.  In  what- 
ever form  it  may  take,  this  desire  of  the  child  to  become  a 
part  of  the  life  around  him,  and  thus  realize  his  own  being, 
is  the  beginning  point  of  all  instruction.  This  determines 
the  method  of  education ;  for  begun  in  this  way,  these  activi- 
ties, in  whatever  direction  they  may  be  guided  by  the  teacher, 
should  be  sustained  by  the  child's  own  powers  as  he  gradually 
becomes  able  to  put  forth  greater  and  greater  effort. 
2  u 


658  History  of  Education 

The  interpretation  which  Froebel  himself  gave  to  this  effort 
ot  the  child  to  relate  himself  to  the  world-whole  and  the 
methods  which  he  took  of  stimulating  it  by  use  of  certain 
objects  and  exercises,  led  to  a  symbolism  which  alienates 
many  from  his  thoughts  in  general.  However,  this  symbolic 
use  of  these  particular  objects  and  activities,  in  so  far  as  they 
apply  to  the  higher  stages  of  learning,  has  no  vital  connec- 
tion with  his  fundamental  theories.  The  extent  to  which 
such  interpretation  is  valid  for  kindergarten  work  is  aside 
from  our  interest  here.  This  is  to  be  answered  in  the  light  of 
prevailing  ideas  and  practices  rather  than  by  the  practices 
formulated  by  Froebel  for  his  own  time  and  people. 

Education  is  not  a  preparation  for  a  future  state.  This 
life  which  the  child  seeks  to  enter  is  not  the  adult  life,  but 
the  life  around  him.  Education  finds  its  meaning  in  the  pro- 
cess, not  in  some  condition  remote  and  only  real  through  the 
imagination.  The  aim  of  education  is  development,  the 
process  of  education  is  development.  In  so  far  as  the  child 
enters  to  the  full  extent  of  his  powers  and  his  nature  into 
unity  with  the  life  around  him,  the  development  of  the 
present  is  secured ;  the  development  of  the  future  is  measured 
by  the  same  standard.  The  aim  of  education  is  thus  realized 
as  fully  in  the  child  as  in  the  adult.  There  is  no  ulterior  end. 
Stating  that  the  end  is  also  process,  is  found  in  develop- 
ment, is  to  say  that  the  end  and  process  are  found  in  the 
child.  Yet  not  in  the  child  alone,  but  in  the  child  as  he  relates 
himself  to  the  world  around  him. 

We  have  seen  that  Froebel  as  well  as  Herbart  and  Pesta- 
lozzi  emphasized  the  moral  character  of  education.  With 
Froebel  education  is  the  formation  of  character  because  it  is 
the  determination  of  the  nature  of  the  child's  activities.  Edu- 
cation is  moral  because  it  is  the  relating  of  the  child  to  life  and 
the  revelation  of  the  child's  inner  nature  through  action.  Ordi- 
nary education  is  defective  because  it  results  in  the  develop- 
ment of  intellectual  attainments  and  of  insight  greater  than 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        659 

che  complementary  power  of  accomplishment.  As  with  Rous- 
seau, though  in  a  far  wider  sense,  Froebel  would  have  the 
power  of  accomplishment  and  of  action  developed  as  fully  as 
the  powers  of  acquisition  and  of  reflection,  because  developed 
along  with  them.  By  basing  education  upon  the  activity  of 
the  child  and  gauging  education  by  the  child's  self-activity, 
power  of  execution  is  developed  to  the  same  degree  and  in  the 
same  connection  as  the  other  acquisitions.  There  is  no  hiatus 
between  knowledge  and  action ;  no  conflict  between  theory  and 
practice ;  no  discrepancy  between  profession  and  deeds. 

Self-activity  cannot  be  defined  in  a  simple  statement. 
Froebel  nowhere  so  defines  it.  But  the  interpretations  just 
given  are  some  of  the  more  important  implications  of  the  prin- 
ciple, which  will  be  recognized  as  the  source  of  many  fruitful 
educational  ideas  of  the  present. 

Influence  of  Froebel  on  Educational  Practice.  —  Froebel's 
conception  of  school  work,  like  that  of  Pestalozzi,  was  a  radical 
departure  from  the  established  and  traditional  practice  still 
in  existence,  despite  the  work  of  Rousseau,  Basedow,  and 
Pestalozzi.  For  these  changes,  which  were  justified  by  pre- 
ceding reforms  largely  on  empirical  grounds,  Froebel  gives 
a  real  philosophy,  which  in  time  becomes  illuminating.  In 
Education  by  Development  Froebel  asserts  that,  — 

"  Education  and  instruction,  discipline  and  school,  seek,  as 
a  rule,  the  grounds  for  determining  their  requirements  and 
their  management  either  wholly  outside  of  the  life  of  the 
children  or,  even  if  within  the  life  of  the  human  being,  yet 
derived  from  a  time  which  is,  in  respect  to  the  child,  so  far 
in  the  future  as  to  have  for  him  no  power  at  all  of  attraction, 
of  arousing,  and  of  development.  That  which  the  child  is  to 
do  and  learn  must  proceed  from  its  power  of  will  and  action 
inwardly  united  to  a  doing,  to  a  desire,  by  means  of  the  direct, 
instantaneous  effect  of  the  total  life  united  in  itself.  Cer- 
tainly this  is  shown  by  almost  all  our  subjects  of  instruction, 
especially  as  applied  to  the  mass  of  people.  Our  instructions 
in  reading  and  writing,  as  also  in  counting  and  speaking; 


660  History  of  Education 

arithmetic  and  language,  are  especially  feeble,  as  they  mostly 
begin  with  the  abstract  with  which  instruction  should  close ; 
hence  the  few  abiding  results  of  this  instruction  in  life." 

The  school,  to  Froebel,  was  a  place  where  the  child  should 
learn  the  important  things  of  life,  the  essentials  of  truth, 
justice,  free  personality,  responsibility,  initiative,  causal  rela- 
tionship, and  the  like ;  not  by  learning  them,  but  by  living 
them  out. 

According  to  the  fundamental  idea  of  unity,  the  school 
was  to  be  an  institution  in  which  each  child  should  discover 
his  own  individuality,  work  out  his  own  personality,  and 
develop  his  power  of  initiative  and  of  execution.  He  was  to 
do  this  through  cooperation  with  others  in  similar  endeavors, 
in  work  where  interest  was  shared  by  all,  responsibility  borne 
by  all,  and  rewards  enjoyed  by  all.  Mutual  helpfulness  was 
a  constant  motive.  The  school,  as  the  world,  was  to  become 
a  unity  in  which  the  units  of  developing  individuality  were 
to  find  their  perfection  through  participation  in  the  life  of 
the  world.  "  His  kindergarten  or  school,"  says  Hughes,1 "  was 
a  little  world  where  responsibility  was  shared  by  all,  individ- 
ual rights  respected  by  all,  brotherly  sympathy  developed  by 
all,  and  voluntary  cooperation  practiced  by  all."  Thus  co- 
operation as  the  correlative  of  unity,  diversity  within  the  unit, 
—  the  law  of  life  and  of  reality,  —  is  to  become  the  principle 
of  the  school.  The  school  becomes  a  miniature  society. 
Education  becomes  a  phase  of  life,  not  as  a  preparation  but 
as  an  epitome. 

Instruction  is  no  longer  synonymous  with  education,  nor 
even  with  school  work.  It  becomes  the  middle  term  of  a  pro- 
cess which  starts  from  the  child's  spontaneous  activities  and 
native  interests  and  terminates  in  some  creative  use  or  tangi- 
ble expression  of  the  knowledge  imparted  by  instruction,  as 
spontaneous  activities  are  directed  toward  some  given  and 

1  FroebePs  Educational  Laws,  p.  1 6. 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education         661 

approved  ends  by  the  teacher.  Upon  the  native  tendency  is 
thus  grafted  a  habit  or  custom,  a  mode  of  activity  and  of 
thought  which  is  approved  as  a  desired  educational  end. 
Thus  education  seeks  neither  to  eliminate  nature,  nor  to 
let  it  severely  alone,  but  to  help  nature,  —  to  guide  it  to 
ends  higher  than  those  it  would  reach  unaided,  or  at  least 
to  secure  these  ends  by  readier  and  more  direct  means. 

Play. —  One  of  the  most  marked  influences  of  Froebel  upon 
the  practical  work  of  the  schools  was  the  demonstration  of  the 
value  of  play  in  the  earlier  stages  of  education.  The  educa- 
tional value  of  play  had  been  asserted  by  Plato,  and  by  him  in 
turn  justified  by  the  practical  use  made  of  it  by  the  ancient 
Egyptians.  All  through  the  history  of  education,  especially 
with  the  early  Renaissance  writers,  this  view  is  frequently 
expressed.  For  a  half  century  preceding  the  founding  of 
the  kindergarten,  there  had  been  a  well-defined  movement 
in  German  educational  thought  and  practice,  in  which  the 
educational  value  of  play  was  a  chief  characteristic.  In 
this  movement  the  physical  value  was  chiefly  emphasized. 
With  Froebel  the  intellectual  and  moral  value  was  made 
supreme. 

As  the  most  characteristic  spontaneous  activity  of  the  child, 
play  becomes  the  basis  of  the  educational  process  in  the  early 
years.  Resulting  most  directly  from  the  native  interests  of 
the  child,  it  furnishes  the  best  natural  stock  upon  which  to 
graft  the  habits  of  action,  feeling,  and  thought  approved  by 
the  educator.  It  is  through  play  that  the  child  first  repre- 
sents the  world  to  himself.  Consequently  it  is  through  play 
that  the  educator  can  give  to  the  child  the  interpretation  of  life 
which  he  seeks  to  impart.  Through  it  he  can  best  introduce 
him  into  the  world  of  actual  social  relations,  give  him  the 
sense  of  independence  and  of  mutual  helpfulness,  provide 
him  with  initiative  and  motivation,  and  develop  him  as  the 
individual  constituting  a  unit  in  the  social  whole. 

Froebel  did  not  stop  with  the  theoretical  demonstration  of 


662  History  of  Education 

the  educational  value  of  play ;  he  realized  his  ideas  in  the 
practical  procedure  of  the  kindergarten.  But  the  general 
value  of  the  use  of  play  activities  in  the  kindergarten  has 
consisted  largely  in  the  demonstration  to  the  educational 
public  at  large  of  a  truer  conception  of  the  meaning  of  educa- 
tion. On  the  other  hand,  through  a  misinterpretation  of  and 
an  over-emphasis  upon  this  doctrine  of  interest,  much  that 
is  detrimental  has  crept  into  many  a  modern  school.  There 
has  grown  a  tendency  to  interpret  the  idea  that  play  is 
educative  into  the  pernicious  fallacy  that  education  is  play. 
Thus  again  is  revealed  the  tendency  previously  noted,  to 
exalt  a  means  intended  as  a  starting  point  into  an  end  in 
itself. 

Educational  Value  of  Handwork.  —  Analogous  to  the  use  of 
play  is  that  of  all  forms  of  constructive  work.  As  a  motive 
representing  the  same  spontaneity  as  play,  as  an  activity 
representing  the  concrete  constructive  process  of  making  real 
an  idea  or  a  process  of  instruction,  constructive  work  might 
form  both  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  the  educational  pro- 
cess. Industrial  training  had  been  recognized  as  a  phase  of 
education  by  Rousseau,  but  upon  social  and  economic  grounds. 
Pestalozzi,  believing  as  he  did  that  all  knowledge  came  through 
the  senses  and  that  education  was  primarily  a  training  of  the 
sense-perceptions,  had  added  to  this  the  psychological  motive. 
Though  he  made  these  more  practically  effective  than  had 
hitherto  been  done,  Fellenberg  (p.  723)  hardly  seized  more 
than  the  social  and  economic  import.  On  distinctly  educational 
grounds,  Froebel  gave  to  all  manual  and  industrial  training 
and  to  all  forms  of  constructive  work  the  place  which  they  are 
coming  to  occupy  in  modern  schooling.  Pestalozzi  introduced 
object  study  and  manual  activities  largely  from  the  receptive 
point  of  view,  that  of  imparting  knowledge,  or  at  best  that 
of  developing  the  sense  perceptions.  Froebel  gave  them  a 
creative  purpose.  Through  them  the  child  was  to  develop 
power,  since  each  activity  was  to  the  child  but  an  expression 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        663 

of  some  idea  or  purpose  gained  through  instruction.  The  use  f 
of  any  object  or  material  or  bit  of  information  introduced 
into  the  school  is  to  find  out  what  the  child  can  do  with  it.^ 
Thus,  in  a  broader  sense  than  with  Herbart,  all  culminates 
in  application ;  in  a  broader  sense  than  with  Pestalozzi,  all 
school  work  is  constructive.  To  Froebel  there  was  an 
additional  value  which  finds  little  recognition  in  present 
thought  and  which  need  not  modify  one's  judgment  of  the 
practical  value  of  Froebel's  principle,  —  he  found  a  spirit- 
ual, even  an  occult,  meaning  in  the  handling  of  material 
objects  by  the  child.  This  is  to  be  noted  as  strictly  a  phase 
of  his  symbolic  teaching.  This  moral,  spiritual,  and  religious 
meaning  of  constructive  work  he  states  thus  :  — 

"  God  created  man  in  his  own  image  ;  therefore  man  should 
create  and  bring  forth  like  God.  The  spirit  of  man  should 
hover  over  the  shapeless,  and  move  it  that  it  may  take  shape 
and  form,  a  distinct  being  and  life  of  its  own.  This  is  the 
high  meaning,  the  deep  significance,  the  great  purpose  of 
work  and  industry,  of  productive  and  creative  activity.  We 
become  truly  Godlike  in  diligence  and  industry,  in  working 
and  doing,  which  are  accompanied  by  the  clear  perception  or 
even  by  the  vaguest  feeling  that  thereby  we  represent  the 
inner  in  the  outer ;  that  we  give  body  to  spirit  and  form  to 
thought ;  that  we  render  visible  the  invisible." 

The  great  significance  of  constructive  work,  however,  is 
found  in  the  principle  that  education  is  but  the  development 
of  the  power  to  give  outward  manifestation  and  expression  of 
the  inner  self.  Not  that  creation  with  the  hand  is  the  highest 
expression  of  this  ;  but  that  the  development  of  the  power 
of  this  material  manifestation  is  but  the  basis  of  the  higher 
power  of  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual  expression  in  action 
crystallized  into  habits  or  into  character.  Therefore  he  held 
that  for  all  education,  — 

"  The  time  has  now  come  to  exalt  all  work  into  free  activity ; 
that  is,  to  make  it  intelligent  action.  This  can  only  take  place 


664  History  of  Education 

when  the  law,  according  to  which  all  formative  activity  pro« 
ceeds,  is  recognized  and  consciously  applied,  as  it  has  been 
hitherto  unconsciously  applied.  The  occupation  material  of 
my  method  gives  the  means  of  unconscious  application  of  the 
law  on  the  children's  part  to  rise  to  art  in  such  a  way  as  to 
come  to  their  consciousness  by  degrees  and  be  recognized  as 
the  guide  and  regulator  of  all  formation.  In  no  other  way 
can  human  work  be  transformed  into  free  activity.  It  can 
only  become  intellectual  action  out  of  what  has  been  mere 
mechanical  action  when  the  occupation  of  the  hand  is  at  the 
same  time  the  occupation  of  the  mind.  At  the  present  time 
art  alone  can  truly  be  called  free  activity,  but  every  human 
work  corresponds  more  or  less  with  creative  activity,  and  this 
is  necessary  in  order  to  make  man  the  image  of  his  Divine 
Creator  —  a  creator  on  his  own  part  in  miniature." 


Constructive  work  in  the  school  thus  has  a  deeper  purpose 
than  training  in  sense-perception,  development  of  skill,  exer- 
cise of  physique,  imparting  of  a  mechanical  process,  or  acqui- 
sition of  a  trade.  It  is  the  most  concrete  form  of  expression 
of  ideas,  a  most  definite  process  in  the  formation  of  habits 
or  the  shaping  of  character. 

Nature  Study  in  the  Schools.  —  Here   again  Pestalozzian 
and  Froebelian,  as  well  as  other  minor  streams  of  educational 
thought,  converge.     What  has  come  to  pass  in  the   actual 
study  of  nature  in  the  schools  is  a  resultant  of  them  all.     But 
with  Froebel  the  basal  principles  underlying  this  study  are 
quite  different  from  those  held  by  others.     Least  important  of 
all  with  him  was  the  simple  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  nature; 
'  most  important  of  all  was  the  moral  improvement,  the  reli 
<  gious  uplift,  the  spiritual  insight,  which  the  child  got  from 
!  association  with  nature.     But  when  the  deeper  symbolism  is 
rejected,  the   study  of   nature  yet  retains  its  function  as  a 
moral  discipline,  since  the  world  of   physical  life  offers  so 
many  analogies  with  the  world  of  mental  and  moral  activities. 
As  a  source  of  natural  interests  and  as  affording  opportu- 
nity for  varied  activity,  nature  study  retains  a  place  in  ele- 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        665 

mentary  instruction  as  influenced  by  Froebel,  altogether  aside 
from  either  the  value  of  the  facts  taught  or  of  the  symbolical 
spiritual  import  Thus,  as  the  suggestive  material  for  reading, 
writing,  language  work,  constructive  work,  number  work, 
nature  study  has  come  to  play  an  important  function  in  the 
school ;  not,  however,  as  based  upon  the  old  Pestalozzian 
idea  of  object  teaching,  but  as  based  upon  the  more  funda- 
mental Froebelian  point  of  view  of  finding  the  basis  for 
school  work  in  native  interests  and  spontaneous  activities 
of  the  child  as  these  are  called  forth  by  objects  of  nature 
around  him.  Even  when  all  of  these  ideas  concerning  the 
function  of  nature  study  are  rejected,  Froebel  has  influenced 
fundamentally  the  conception  of  this  study  as  it  is  conducted  in 
all  grades.  For  it  is  no  longer  nature  analyzed  and  dissected 
according  to  the  old  formal  classificatory  science,  but  it  is 
nature  as  life  —  the  plant  as  developing,  the  animal  as  acting, 
the  organ  as  functioning  —  that  is  studied.  Thus,  the  Froe- 
belian influence,  while  in  its  symbolism  it  is  most  antago- 
nistic to  the  modern  scientific  attitude,  yet  in  its  conception 
of  nature  and  of  the  value  of  science  and  the  use  to  be  made 
of  it  in  the  school  it  is  quite  in  harmony  with  the  modern 
scientific  view. 

The  Kindergarten.  —  The  fundamental  thought  of  the 
kindergarten  is  to  aid  the  child  to  express  himself  and  thus 
produce  development.  To  accomplish  this  he  must  start 
from  his  native  interests  and  tendencies  to  action.  The  work 
of  the  school  must  be  based  wholly  upon  "self -activity  "  and 
must  culminate  in  the  expression  or  use  of  the  ideas  or  knowl- 
edge acquired  in  the  process  of  the  activity.  The  primary' 
aim  is  not  acquisition  of  knowledge,  but  growth  or  develop- 
ment, in  which  knowledge  functions  merely  as  a  means  to  an 
end.  Knowledge  is,  as  it  were,  a  subordinate-  or  by-product.; 
yet  always  essential,  if  growth  is  to  be  secured.  Both  the 
acquisitive  and  assimilative  processes  —  exalted  into  ends  in. 
all  previous  school  procedures  —  are  here  wholly  subordinated 


666  History  of  Education 

Both  appear  in  every  completed  educational  process  as  stages 
preliminary  to,  or  incidental  to,  the  expression  or  constructive 
process. 

The  forms  of  expression  of  the  child's  nature  which  Froebel 
seized  upon  as  of  importance  in  this  training  were  first  ges- 
ture, second  song,  third  language.  Through  these  means 
Froebel  sought  to  have  the  child  express  his  feelings  and 
ideas.  He  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life  to  the  organization 
of  material  in  such  forms  of  play,  games,  constructive  activi- 
ties, stories,  and  the  like,  as  would  assist  the  child  and  would 
furnish  material  to  the  teacher  for  directing  the  child's  inter- 
ests and  actions.  So  far  as  possible  these  means  were  to  be 
coordinate.  The  story,  for  example,  when  told  by  the  teacher, 
was  to  be  expressed  by  the  child,  not  only  in  his  own  lan- 
guage, but  through  song,  or  gesture  or  pictures,  or  construction 
of  simple  articles  from  paper,  clay,  or  other  convenient  mate- 
rial. In  this  way  ideas  would  be  given,  thought  stimulated, 
the  imagination  vivified,  the  hands  and  eyes  trained,  the 
muscles  coordinated,  the  moral  nature  strengthened  through 
the  effort  to  put  into  concrete  objective  form  the  higher 
motives  and  sentiments  aroused.  Thus  the  aim  of  educa- 
tional, many-sided  development  was  to  be  secured.  The 
chief  materials  of  the  kindergarten,  aside  from  the  songs, 
the  Mutter  und  Kose-lieder>  Froebel  organized  into  a  series 
of  "gifts  and  occupations."  These  are  introduced  gradually 
and  in  order.  As  the  child  becomes  familiar  with  the  prop- 
erties of  the  one  gift  or  the  activities  called  forth  by  the 
occupation,  he  is  led  on  to  the  next,  which  grow  out  of  the  pre- 
ceding, each  introducing  new  impressions  and  repeating  old 
ones.  The  distinction  between  the  gifts  and  occupations, 
though  commonly  made,  is  an  arbitrary  one.  Froebel  himself 
called  all  the  activities  occupations,  and  the  materials  for  them, 
gifts.  But  the  distinction  seems  to  bring  out  a  most  promi- 
nent tendency  in  the  development  of  the  Froebelian  princi- 
ples ;  namely,  that  a  much  greater  stress  has .  come  to  be 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        667 

placed  upon  the  occupations  than  upon  the  gifts.  While 
Froebel  rendered  the  greatest  service  to  education  in  thus 
transforming  his  principles  into  concrete  schoolroom  proced- 
ures, yet  it  is  evident  that  many  of  these,  including  the  songs, 
were  appropriate  only  to  his  age  and  to  the  people  with  whom 
he  was  familiar,  and  that  to  keep  his  principles  effective 
modification  may  be  necessary  in  the  present  and  future. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  MOVEMENTS  ON 
SCHOOLS.  The  Pestalozzian  Movement.  —  While  yet  at  Burg- 
dorf,  Pestalozzi's  institute  was  frequented  by  numerous 
investigators,  public  men  interested  in  education,  students, 
even  groups  of  students  from  various  countries  of  Europe. 
The  institute  had  been  made  a  normal  school,  subsidized 
by  the  Swiss  government.  At  Yverdun  these  conditions 
were  intensified.  Pestalozzian  institutes  were  founded  in 
Madrid,  Naples,  St.  Petersburg.  The  monarchs  of  Russia, 
Prussia,  Austria,  and  of  the  Italian  states  were  personally 
interested  in  the  reforms ;  and,  as  Pestalozzi  said,  any  hedge 
schoolmaster,  in  order  to  succeed,  had  but  to  proclaim  the  use 
of  Pestalozzian  methods.  In  Switzerland  itself  the  adoption 
of  the  new  ideas  was  slow,  owing  partly  to  the  fact  that 
many  of  the  cantons  were  under  Roman  Catholic  control  and 
partly  to  the  fact  that  the  Protestant  cantons  were  now  domi- 
nated by  reactionary  governments,  naturally  ultra-conserva- 
tive, while  Pestalozzi  and  his  ideas  had  ever  been  associated 
with  the  revolutionary  propaganda.  After  the  revolutionary 
movement  of  1830  a  more  liberal  spirit  prevailed,  normal 
schools  were  established,  several  under  the  principalship  of 
former  pupils  or  assistants  of  Pestalozzi,  and  the  new  ideas 
were  gradually  but  generally  adopted. 

Among  the  German  states  Wiirtemberg  first  fell  under  the 
new  influence.  During  the  first  decade  of  the  century  Pes- 
talozzian enthusiasts  had  been  appointed  school  inspectors 
and  principals  of  normal  schools.  Prussia  followed.  The 


668  History  of  Education 

philosopher  Fichte,  in  his  address  to  the  German  people  aftei 
the  defeat  at  Jena  in  1806,  pointed  out  Pestalozzian  education 
as  the  means  of  regeneration  for  the  nation.  The  minister  of 
education  and  the  royal  family  were  deeply  concerned  in  the 
new  educational  movement.  Picked  young  men  were  sent  to 
Yverdun,  and  through  them  and  the  German  assistants  of 
Pestalozzi,  who  left  Yverdun  during  the  unfortunate  disagree- 
ments among  the  staff,  the  new  ideas  were  incorporated  in 
the  training  of  the  teachers  for  the  Prussian  elementary 
schools. 

Though  students  from  France,  Spain,  and  other  nations 
were  trained  at  Yverdun  and  though  some  progress  was  made 
in  popularizing  the  new  methods,  the  spirit  of  absolutism  was 
unfavorable  to  their  rapid  development.  It  was  not  until  after 
the  revolution  of  1830  that  the  educational  reform  movement 
made  any  progress  in  France.  Then,  especially  under  Victor 
Cousin,  minister  of  education,  great  advance  was  made, 
notably  in  the  training  of  teachers. 

In  England,  that  which  received  acceptance  was  a  modified 
form  of  Pestalozzianism  resulting  from  its  combination  with 
the  prevailing  monitorial  and  infant  schools  (see  pp.  724- 
727).  Consequently  it  was  the  more  formal  aspects  of  spe- 
cial methods  rather  than  the  real  spirit  of  the  reforms  that 
dominated.  This  was  chiefly  through  the  work  of  the 
Mayos,  brother  and  sister,  who  worked  during  the  second 
quarter  of  the  century. 

Through  England  came  much  of  the  Pestalozzian  influence 
exerted  on  the  United  States,  and  to  this  is  largely  due  the 
formal  and  even  superficial  character  of  much  of  it,  relating 
as  it  does  or  did  to  petty  methods.  However,  not  all  of  it 
was  of  this  character,  for  the  movement  for  the  training  of 
teachers,  as  well  as  the  character  of  this  training,  were  out- 
growths of  the  Pestalozzian  ideas.  From  the  time  of  Neef, 
one  of  Pestalozzi's  assistants,  who  was  induced  by  a  philan- 
thropic American  to  settle  in  Philadelphia  in  1808,  sporadic 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education         669 

instances  of  the  transplanting  of  the  new  ideas  occurred.  The 
translation  (1835)  of  Cousin's  Report  on  the  State  of  Public 
Instruction  in  Prussia,  which  did  so  much  for  the  reform  of 
the  French  schools,  had  great  influence  upon  educational 
leaders  in  America.  From  the  results  of  the  reform  move- 
ment, especially  as  he  saw  it  in  Germany,  Horace  Mann  drew 
many  of  his  ideas  and  much  of  his  inspiration.  His  Seventh 
Annual  Report,  one  of  the  most  influential  educational  docu- 
ments ever  published  in  America,  embodies  the  results  of  his 
personal  investigation.  The  most  specific  source  of  this  influ- 
ence, however,  was  what  is  known  as  the  Oswego  movement, 
begun  in  1860.  The  ideas  of  this  movement  came  indirectly 
from  the  Mayo  movement  in  England  and  centered  largely 
about  the  use  of  objects  as  the  basis  of  instruction.  The  result 
was  a  previously  unknown  attention  to  the  technique  of  edu- 
cation and  to  the  details  of  special  method  that  was  the  chief 
chaiacteristic  of  normal  school  instruction  during  the  genera- 
tion following.  Hence  it  comes  that,  for  the  most  part,  so 
far  as  principle  is  concerned,  our  schools  are  yet  upon  the 
Pestalozzian  basis,  though  the  special  methods  of  applying 
these  principles  have  been  much  improved. 

One  other  practical  effect  of  the  Pestalozzian  method  on 
schools  deserves  at  least  mention ;  that  is  the  new  basis  which 
it  gave  for  the  care  of  social  dependents  and  defectives, 
especially  paupers,  semi-criminals,  deaf-mutes  and  the  blind. 
From  Pestalozzi's  institutions  for  the  poor  sprang  the  agricul- 
tural colonies,  especially  those  for  juvenile  offenders.  The 
industrial  occupations  furnished  a  reformatory  element  hith- 
erto wanting  in  criminal  punishment.  Guided  by  the  princi- 
ples of  his  master,  one  of  Pestalozzi's  assistants  established 
a  school  for  deaf-mutes.  The  object  method  of  teaching 
introduced  hitherto  unknown  possibilities  of  developing  such 
defective  classes,  while  the  industrial  element  gave  them 
the  prospect  of  economic  independence,  which  was  both  a 
great  gain  for  society  and  a  basis  ior  self-respect  and  self 


670  History  of  Education 

confidence  hitherto  denied  these  unfortunates.  From  these 
methods  have  developed  the  modern  care  and  the  methods 
of  education  of  these  classes. 

The  Herbartian  Movement,  being,  as  we  have  noted, 
largely  one  of  principle,  is  not  to  be  traced  with  any  exactitude. 
The  Herbartian  propaganda,  however,  furthered  as  it  has 
been  by  groups  of  educators  devoted  to  the  development  or 
the  popularization  of  his  thought,  is  readily  described.  It  is 
the  former  which  has  specific  interest  in  the  history  of  educa- 
tion, and  here  we  must  be  content  with  indicating  the  extent 
to  which  Herbart's  thought  has  entered  into  the  educational 
consciousness  of  to-day,  as  that  consciousness  is  determining, 
in  a  practical  way,  the  work  of  our  schools.  Undoubtedly,  in 
this  sense,  the  Herbartian  thought  has  entered  very  largely 
into  the  best  work  of  the  ordinary  school,  for  the  progressive 
teacher  everywhere,  however  unconscious  he  may  be  of  the 
ultimate  origin  of  those  influences,  shares  to  some  extent  in 
the  educational  purposes  and  endeavors  of  the  time. 

The  establishment  of  pedagogical  seminaries  and  experi- 
mental or  practice  schools  in  connection  with  the  universities 
was  one  of  the  more  important  educational  works  of  Herbart, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  chief  means  by  which  his  ideas  and 
methods  were  brought  to  bear  on  the  public  schools.  The 
seminaries  at  the  Universities  of  Jena,  Leipzig,  and  Halle 
were  the  more  famous  of  these,  and  especially  developed  the 
Herbartian  doctrines  and  applied  them  to  practical  work. 
At  the  first  of  these,  Professor  Stoy,  later  Professor  Rein, 
have  done  most  in  applying  these  principles  to  elemen- 
ary  school  work  through  the  elaboration  of  general  and 
special  methods.  It  is  from  this  course  that  the  American 
influence  has  proceeded.  From  Professor  Tuiskon  Ziller,  at 
Leipzig,  came  the  more  independent  development  of  Herbart's 
original  doctrine,  especially  its  elaboration  as  the  basis  of  the 
school  curriculum,  of  the  culture  epoch  theory  suggested  by 
Herbart  and  the  details  of  the  theorv  of  concentration  of 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        671 

studies  also  suggested  in  principle  by  Herbart.  Around  each 
center  has  grown  up  a  very  extensive  literature.  From  these 
two  universities  have  gone  out  the  most  widespread  influ- 
ences, through  trained  teachers  and  normal  schools  and 
university  instructors.  Through  these  combined  means  the 
German  schools  have  responded  to  these  more  advanced 
ideas  and  have,  so  far  as  the  character  of  instruction  is  con- 
cerned, reached  a  higher  degree  of  excellence  than  any  other 
schools. 

In  the  United  States  the  dates  of  publication  of  the  Her- 
bartian  literature  will  indicate  of  how  recent  origin  the  move- 
ment is,  though,  to  be  sure,  there  is  an  extended  magazine 
literature  of  somewhat  earlier  date.  Though  there  were 
many  other  contributing  forces,  the  most  immediate  response 
to  this  discussion  was  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Fif- 
teen on  Elementary  Schools  made  to  the  National  Educa- 
tional Association  in  1895.  The  aim  of  this  report  was  to 
unify  the  work  of  the  elementary  school,  to  find  a  basis  for 
that  unity  in  a  curriculum  embodying  some  form  of  correla- 
tion of  studies,  and  to  prompt  to  better  methods  of  instruc- 
tion. A  similar  report  five  years  earlier  by  a  "  Committee  of 
Ten  "  aimed  to  perform  this  work  of  unification  for  secondary 
education,  and  to  bring  about  a  closer  articulation  of  element- 
ary, secondary,  and  higher  education.  Through  such  means 
a  very  general  influence  is  being  exerted  on  the  schools  of 
our  country  toward  placing  the  character  of  instruction  on  a 
higher  basis  than  that  reached  through  the  Pestalozzian 
movements  of  some  half  century  or  more  ago. 

The  Froebelian  Movement.  —  As  has  been  suggested,  the 
influence  of  the  Froebelian  principles  is  practically  coexten- 
sive with  the  most  important  educational  tendencies  of  the 
present  time.  An  analysis  of  these  will  make  evident  the 
fundamental  character  of  the  influence  of  Froebel  on  schools. 
The  application  which  Froebel  himself  made  of  his  principles 
to  the  kindergarten  is  being  made  by  others  to  more  advanced 


672  History  of  Education 

phases  of  education.  All  that  can  be  sketched  here  is  the 
spread  of  the  kindergarten  as  an  institution. 

In  Germany  a  number  of  institutions  similar  to  that  at 
Keilhau  were  established  before  Froebel's  death.  But  in 
1851,  a  year  before  that  event,  kindergartens  were  prohibited 
by  the  Prussian  government  on  account  of  their  supposed 
revolutionary  character.  The  Baroness  Bertha  von  Maren- 
holtz-Biilow,  to  whom  the  actual  popularization  of  the  kinder- 
garten was  largely  due,  transferred  her  activities,  for  the 
time  being,  to  England.  Though  this  prohibition  was  re- 
moved after  ten  years,  kindergartens  have  not  yet  been  incor- 
porated into  the  public  school  systems.  While  many  private 
ones  exist,  they  are  not  considered  schools.  Their  teachers 
are  not  required  to  comply  with  the  standards  required  of 
elementary  teachers  and,  though  they  are  under  the  super- 
vision of  school  inspectors,  they  may  not  teach  anything 
which  will  duplicate  the  work  of  the  elementary  schools. 
Consequently  in  the  work  of  these  schools  there  has  been 
comparatively  little  development. 

France  best  illustrates  the  extensive  development  of  schools 
for  very  young  children.  But  these  infant  schools  —  the 
holes  maternelles  —  are  rather  a  development  of  the  infant 
school  movement  than  of  the  kindergarten.  To  a  very  slight 
degree  do  they  embody  the  principles  of  Froebel  —  certainly 
not  his  fundamental  one  of  self-activity.  While  these  schools 
have  developed  for  the  most  part  since  the  War  of  1870,  and 
while  their  establishment  is  optional  with  the  communes,  yet 
in  them  are  trained  half  a  million  children  of  the  ages  from 
two  to  six. 

First  introduced  into  England  in  1854,  and  advocated  by  a 
number  of  prominent  men,  such  as  the  novelist  Dickens,  the 
kindergarten  was  established  only  in  a  few  instances  and  then 
as  a  private  institution  for  the  wealthier  classes.  Not  until 
1874  did  the  ideas  of  the  kindergarten  begin  to  modify  the 
work  of  the  infant  schools  (see  p.  726),  which  by  this  time  had 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        673 

been  incorporated  as  a  part  of  the  public  school  system.  It 
was  the  procedure  and  methods  rather  than  the  principles  and 
spirit  of  the  kindergarten  that  were  grafted  on  to  this  domi- 
nant institution. 

The  first  kindergarten  in  the  United  States  was  established 
by  Elizabeth  Peabody  in  Boston  in  1860,  though  it  was  not 
until  1868  that  she  succeeded  in  embodying  the  spirit  and 
purpose  of  Froebel's  work.  A  number  of  private  kindergar- 
tens were  soon  established.  Under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  W. 
H.  Harris  and  Miss  Susan  Blow,  —  among  the  most  prominent 
of  Froebelian  exponents  in  this  country, — the  kindergarten 
was  first  made  a  part  of  the  public  school  system  in  St.  Louis 
in  1873.  Since  that  time  the  movement  has  developed  until 
there  is  scarcely  a  city  of  any  size  but  what  has  incorporated 
the  kindergarten  as  a  component  part  of  its  public  schools. 


REFERENCES 

Pestalozzi. 

Barnard,  Pestalozzi  and  Pestalozzianism.     (New  York,  1859.) 

De  Guimps,  Pestalozzi.     (Syracuse,  1889.) 

Kruesi,  Life  and  Works  of  Pestalozzi.     (New  York,  1875.) 

Neef,  Sketch  of  a  Plan  and  Method  of  Education.     (Philadelphia,  1808.) 

Pestalozzi,  Leonard  and  Gertrude.     (Eng.  Abstract,  Boston,  1885.) 

Pestalozzi,  Hou>  Gertrude  loaches  her  Children.     (Syracuse,  1898.) 

Pestalozzi,  Evening  Hours  of  a  Hermit,  in  Barnard^s  Journal,  Vol.  VI, 

p.  169. 
Pinloche,  Pestalozzi.     (New  York,  1901.) 

Herbart. 

De  Garmo,  Herbart  and  Herbartians.     (New  York,  1895.) 

De  Garmo,  Essentials  of  Method.     (Boston,  1889.) 

Eckoff,  Herbarfs  A  B  C  of  Sense  Perception.     (New  York,  1896.) 

Felkin,  Herbarfs  Science  of  Education.     (London,  1892.) 

Herbart,  Psychology.     (New  York,  1891.) 

Herbart,  Outlines  of  Pedagogical  Doctrines  (Lange  &  De  Garmo).     (New 

York,  1901.) 

Herbart,  in  Eckoff  and  Felkin,  as  above. 
Lange,  Apperception.     (New  York,  1892.) 
ax 


674  History  of  Education 

Rein,  Outlines  of  Pedagogics.     (New  York,  1893.) 

Ufer,  Introduction  to  the  Pedagogy  of  Herbart.     (Boston,  1894.) 

Van  Liew,  Herbart  and  the  Development  of  his  Pedagogical  Doctrines, 

(London,  1893.) 
Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten.     (United  States  Bureau  of  Education, 

1890.) 
Report  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen,  in  Educational  Review,  Vol.  IX,  p.  209. 

Froebel. 

Blow,  Symbolic  Education.     (New  York,  1894.) 

Blow,  Letters  to  a  Mother  on  the  Philosophy  of  Froebel.    (New  York,  1899.) 

Bowen,  Froebel  and  Education  through  Self -activity.     (New  York,  1897.) 

Froebel,  Education  of  Man.     (New  York,  1894.) 

Froebel,  Education  by  Development.     (New  York,  1899.) 

Froebel,  Autobiography.     (Syracuse,  1889.) 

Froebel,  Pedagogics  of  the  Kindergarten.     (New  York,  1902.) 

Hughes,  Froebel^s  Educational  Laws.     (New  York,  1899.) 

Marenholtz-Biilow,  Reminiscences  of  Froebel.     (Boston,  1887.) 

MacVannel,  The  Philosophy  of  Froebel,  in  Teachers'1  College  Record,  Vol.  IV, 

No.  5.     (New  York,  1903.) 
Quick,  Educational  Reformers,  pp.  384-413. 

General. 

Buchner,  Educational  Theory  of  Kant.     (Philadelphia,  1904.) 
Churton,  Kant  on  Education.     (London,  1899.) 
Rosenkranz,  Philosophy  of  Education.     (New  York,  1894.) 


TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  INVESTIGATION 

1.  What  similarity  is  there  discoverable  between  the  educational  ideas 
of  Rousseau  and  those  of  Pestalozzi?    Of  Herbart?    Of  Froebel?     Of 
Kant?     Of  Richter? 

2.  Was  there  a  consistent  scheme  of  psychological  thought  in  Pesta- 
lozzi's  teachings? 

3.  What  general  conclusions  concerning  the  change  in  the  conception 
of  education  can  you  form  from  a  comparison  of  definitions  drawn  from 
the  later  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  century,  with  those  formulated 
during  the  last  quarter  century? 

4.  Point  out  some  of  the  errors  in  practice  in  higher  stages  of  educa- 
tion resulting  from  applying  principles  formulated  from  a  consideration  of 
the  elementary  stages  alone. 


Psychological  Tendency  in  Education        675 

5.  State  in  greater  detail  the  educational  philosophy  of  Kant.     Of 
Froebel.     Of  Rosenkranz. 

6.  What  criticism  of  Pestalozzi  does  Herbart  offer  in  his  A  B  C  of 
Sense  Perception  f 

7.  What  practices  in  your  own  or  in  any  selected  schoolroom  are  due 
to  the  influence  of  Pestalozzi?     Of  Herbart?     Of  Froebel? 

8.  What  agreement  do  you  find  between  the  psychological  theories 
ot  Herbart  as  applied  to  education  and  those  of  Pestalozzi?    Those  of 
Froebel? 

9.  What  did  Froebel  owe  to  Pestalozzi? 

10.  What  contrast  exists  between  the  fundamental  conception  of  the 
mind  held  by  Herbart  and  that  held  by  Froebel? 

11.  To  what  extent  is  the  work  of  the  elementary  schools  of  our  coun- 
try now  controlled  by  the  principle  formulated  by  Pestalozzi?    By  Herbart? 
By  Froebel? 

12.  To  what  extent  is  it  the  duty  of  the  school  to  give  instruction  in 
morals?    To  what  extent  is  formation  of  character  its  aim? 

13.  To  what  extent   can  the  work  of  instruction  be  made   to  bear 
directly  upon  conduct  according  to  the  Herbartian  theory? 

14.  To  what  extent  is  the  constructive  work  of  the  school  based  upon 
the  Herbartian  principle?     To  what  extent  is  this  justified? 

15.  What  is  the  relation  of  interest  to  this  process  of  character-forming 
instruction? 

1 6.  To  what  extent  can  interest  be  made  the  basis  of  school  work? 

17.  What  harmonization,  if  any,  can  be  made  between  interest  and  the 
disciplinary  conception  of  education?     Is  the  idea  of  interest  as  the  con- 
trolling principle  of  education  incompatible  with  a  training  in  will  power? 

1 8.  To  what  extent  does  the  importance  of  interest  in  education  de- 
pend upon  Herbart's  doctrine  of  the  precedence  of  ideas  over  volitions? 

19.  To  what  extent  is  there  a  conflict  between  individuality  and  charac- 
ter as  stated  by  Herbart  ? 

20 .  To  what  extent  then  can  development  of  individuality  be  made  the 
aim  of  education? 

21.  What  is  the  basis  of  correlation  of  studies  according  to  Herbart? 
What  further  reason  can  be  assigned? 

22.  Which  has  the  greater  merit,  the  plan  of  concentration  of  studies 
or  that  of  coordination  of  studies  ? 

23.  What  is   the   difference  in   the   psychological   theory  underlying 
the  two?     In  the  sociological  theory? 

24.  Describe    any    particular    concrete    plan    of    concentration.     Of 
coordination. 


676  History  of  Education 

25.  To  what  extent  can  the  subject-matter  of  instmctfon  be  drawn 
directly  from  the  life  activities  of  the  child?     Illustrate  in  detail. 

26.  To  what  extent  can  the  subject-matter  of  instruction,  or  the  out' 
come  of  instruction,  be  brought  to  bear  directly  on  the  life  of  the  child? 
Illustrate  in  detail. 

27.  To  what  extent  did  Froebel's  practical  experiences  in  his  early 
life  contribute  to  the  formation  of  his  educational  theories? 

28.  What   contrasts   exist   between   the   philosophy  and  metaphysics 
of  Froebel  and  that  of  Herbart? 

29.  Trace  out  in  any  particular  school  or  locality  the  respects  in  which 
the   principles   first   embodied   in   kindergarten   work   have   affected  the 
work  of  the  elementary  grades. 

30.  What  is  the  value  and  what  the  danger  of  symbolism  in  education? 

31.  What    is    the    relation  of  religion  and   education   according    to 
Froebel  ? 

32.  If  the  relationship  is  so  intimate  as  held  by  Froebel,  how  can  you 
justify  the  exclusion  of  instruction  in  religion  from  the  public  schools  ? 

33.  Compare   FroebePs  idea  of  unity  in  school  work  with  Herbart's 
idea  of  correlation.     Which  is  the  more  practicable? 

34.  Compare  the  various  descriptions  of  self-activity  given  by  Froebel, 
and  from  them  form  a  definition. 

35.  To  what  extent  is   Froebel's   idea  of  self-activity  identical  with 
those  more  recently  formulated?   (E.g.  in  Harris's  Psychological  Founda- 
tions of  Education.) 

36.  What  various  forms  of  self-activity  can  you  discover  among  the 
children  of  any  given  schoolroom? 

37.  Why  is  it  that  play  and  games  possess  so  little  educational  value 
in  American  life  and  schools? 

38.  What  educational  value  is  obtained  from  play  and  games  in  the 
English  public  schools?     How  is  it  obtained? 

39.  What  objections  are  there  to  symbolic  interpretation  in   nature 
study  with  the  little  child? 

40.  To  what  extent  is  the  principle  of  constructive  work  embodied  in 
the  occupations  found  in  the  more  advanced  grades? 


GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS.  —  The  movement  begun 
by  the  sense-realists  in  the  seventeenth  century,  which  might 
have  been  termed  the  earlier  phase  of  the  scientific  tendency, 
finds  no  break  between  that  time  and  the  late  eighteenth  or 
early  nineteenth  century.  But  the^  great  development  of 
the  physical  and  biological  sciences  during  this  intervening 
period,  the  influence  of  the  naturalistic  tendency  in  exalting 
the  importance  of  the  phenomena  of  nature,  and  the  inade- 
quacy of  the  old  learning  and  of  the  humanistic  education  as 
a  whole,  gave  unprecedented  importance  to  this  tendency 
from  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century.  For  a  consider- 
able portion  of  the  century  an  open  conflict  was  waged  be- 
tween the  advocates  of  the  old,  staking  their  all  upon  the 
disciplinary  value  of  the  classics  (Chapter  IX),  and  the  advo- 
cates of  the  new  scientific  learning,  refusing  to  permit  the 
possibility  of  any  compromise  of  view.  The  scientific  ten- 
dency possessed  two  general  characteristics :  As  a  contrast  to 
the  prevailing  disciplinary  view  that  the  value  of  the  subject 
lay  in  the  process  of  acquiring  it,  the  scientific  conception 
placed  all  emphasis  upon  the  importance  of  the  content. 
This  position  has  been  previously  described  under  sense- 
realism.  Knowledge  of  natural  phenomena  was  conceived 
to  be  the  source  of  all  important  truth  and  of  all  social  prog- 
ress. Hence  it  was  for  the  interest  of  the  individual,  from 
both  the  philosophical  and  the  psychological  point  of  view, 
and  for  the  interest  of  society  that  the  new  subject-matter 

677 


678  History  of  Education 

should  replace  the  old  in  schools.  The  most  characteristic, 
features  of  educational  discussions  of  the  latter  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century  have  been  those  relating  to  the  curricu- 
lum. The  other  feature,  also  mentioned  in  Chapter  VIII, 
in  recent  times  of  much  more  importance  on  account  of  the 
/  better  organization  of  the  natural  sciences,  was  the  value  of 
the  inductive  method  in  instruction  in  every  subject 

A  survey  of  the  development  of  the  physical  and  biological 
sciences  from  the  sixteenth  century  to  the  present  time  will 
be  most  helpful  in  throwing  light  upon  the  development  of 
educational  thought  and  practices.  Such  a  survey  cannot 
be  made  in  a  brief  space,  but  the  material  can  be  gleaned 
from  the  various  histories  of  science. 

EDUCATION  FROM  THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  OF  THE 
NATURAL  SCIENTISTS.  —  We  have  previously  seen  that 
the  sense-realists  would  base  education  largely  upon  a  study 
of  the  phenomena  of  nature  and  would  have  even  the  lan- 
guages taught  through  the  study  of  objects;  that  the  natu- 
ralists of  the  Rousseau  type  held  that  only  the  education 
which  came  from  natural  phenomena  and  from  the  natural 
development  of  forces  in  human  nature  was  good ;  and  that 
the  practical  influence  of  Pestalozzianism  was  little  more  than 
an  insistence  upon  object  teaching  in  the  schools,  with  the 
resulting  training  in  sense-perception.  These  forces  combine 
in  varying  proportions  with  the  new  force  that  comes  from 
the  development  of  scientific  knowledge  and  the  perfecting 
of  the  organization  of  the  various  natural  sciences  in  demand- 
ing a  wholly  unprecedented  attention  to  the  sciences  in  edu- 
cation. It  is  not  until  a  subject  of  human  interest  or  aspect 
of  human  experience  receives  a  definite  logical  formulation 
that  it  can  demand  a  place  in  the  instruction  of  the  school. 
The  perfection  of  organization  of  grammatical,  linguistic,  and 
mathematical  studies  made  it  difficult  to  effect  any  change  in 
the  organization  of  the  school  curriculum.  There  resulted 


Scientific   Tendency  in  Education  679 

a  prolonged  struggle  against  the  prevailing  disciplinary  or 
classical-mathematical  education  for  the  recognition  of  the 
sciences.  This  produced  a  most  extensive  literature,  which 
can  be  noticed  here  only  by  the  discussion  of  two  or  three 
of  the  most  notable  movements  and  the  work  of  two  of  the 
most  notable  representatives. 

CULTURE  DEMANDED  BY  MODERN  LIFE.— Among 
the  Teutonic  peoples,  as  has  been  shown  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  the  opposition  to  the  dominant  disciplinary  educa- 
tion was  based  upon  psychological  and  philosophical  grounds, 
and  consequently  centered  more  around  the  question  of 
method.  Among  the  English-speaking  peoples  the  opposi- 
tion was  based  largely  upon  practical  and  "  common-sense  " 
grounds,  and  centered  more  around  the  question  of  subject- 
matter.  Hence  the  dominant,  though  not  exclusive,  charac- 
teristic of  the  continental  educational  movement  was  psycho- 
logical ;  that  of  the  English  race,  at  least  in  the  character  of 
the  new  subject-matter  demanded,  was  scientific.  Several 
decades  before  the  educational  writings  of  Spencer  and 
Huxley  appeared,  the  conflict  between  the  dominant  disci- 
plinary education  and  the  scientific  education  had  begun. 

The  earlier  phase  of  the  movement,  that  of  the  early  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  not  on  the  highest  level,  for  it 
was  led  by  enthusiastic  and  well-designing  reformers  rather 
than  by  men  of  any  broad  scientific  reputation  or  knowledge 
such  as  later  appeared  with  Spencer  and  Huxley,  or  by  men 
who  had  any  such  fundamental  grasp  of  the  educational 
problem  as  had  Herbart  or  Froebel.  Most  prominent  among 
these  was  George  Combe  (1788-1858),  who  represented  a 
considerable  body  of  influential  followers  and  headed  a 
movement  of  practical  reform  of  great  influence.  Discred- 
ited then  by  his  advocacy  of  non-sectarian  education,  termed 
secular  education,  which  to  those  generations  meant  a  non- 
religious  and  hence  wholly  inadequate  education,  these  men 


68o  History  of  Education 

are  now  discredited  by  their  belief  in  the  science  of  phre- 
nology as  the  basis  of  educational  practices. 

Two  general  lines  of  argument  were  followed  by  these 
earlier  advocates  of  science.  First,  the  distinction  which 
exists  between  "  instrumental "  knowledge  and  positive 
knowledge ;  between  that  which  furnished  the  means  to  gain 
further  knowledge  and  that  which  had  intrinsic  worth  for 
the  individual.  The  former  included  all  the  linguistic  and 
much  of  the  mathematical  knowledge  ;  thus  languages,  gram- 
mar, writing,  much  of  arithmetic,  algebra,  and  all  of  pure 
mathematics  merely  served  the  purpose  of  providing  means 
for  obtaining  a  knowledge  of  the  physical,  intellectual,  moral, 
social,  political,  and  religious  world  around  us,  which  was  in 
itself  of  great  value  to  the  individual  in  regulating  his  life  and 
promoting  his  own  and  the  social  welfare.  They  considered 
that  the  dominant  disciplinary  education  of  their  day  directed 
all  attention  to  subjects  that  were  merely  instruments  and 
hence  never  reached  the  subjects  that  really  gave  one  the 
knowledge  necessary  to  make  life  successful,  useful,  and 
happy. 

The  second  line  of  argument  considered  education  from 
much  the  same  point  as  did  the  disciplinarians,  and  in  this 
respect  possessed  the  same  relationship  to  the  dominant 
education  as  did  a  popular  phase,  the  psychological  tendency. 
Education  should  not  only  give  to  the  individual  such  knowl- 
edge as  would  enable  him  successfully  and  intelligently  to 
perform  the  various  duties  of  life,  but  it  should  give  the  best 
possible  training  to  all  of  his  mental  faculties  in  order  that  this 
great  end  might  be  attained.  The  old  faculty  conception  of  the 
mind  prevailed,  and  with  this  the  idea  that  it  was  a  function 
of  education  to  train  these  faculties.  As  one  of  these  early 
scientists  and  psychologists  states  the  problem,  the  work  of 
education  is  the  "  strengthening  and  enlivening,  by  means  of 
exercise  of  all  the  faculties  of  mind  and  body  composing  the 
human  being,  to  the  best  condition  for  exercising  their  func- 


Scientific   Tendency  in  Education  68 1 

tions  on  their  proper  objects."  This  training  of  the  facul- 
ties, which  constituted  all  of  education  to  the  disciplinarian 
and  was  the  phase  of  education  to  which  the  psychologist 
devoted  the  greatest  attention,  though  in  a  manner  radically 
different  from  that  of  the  disciplinarians,  became  to  the 
scientist  subordinate.  In  other  words,  for  these  latter  the 
training  came  as  a  by-product  of  the  process  of  gaining 
the  knowledge  that  was  necessary  as  an  instrument  or  that 
had  positive  value  in  itself. 

The  same  general  arguments  appear  in  popular  form  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  century.  Youmans  in  the  essay  on  Mental 
Discipline  in  Education  sums  up  the  problem  thus:  — 

"  With  the  growing  perception  of  the  relation  between 
human  thought  and  human  life  it  will  be  seen  that  by  far 
the  most  priceless  of  all  things  is  mental  power ;  while  one  of 
the  highest  offices  of  education  must  be  strictly  to  economize 
and  wisely  to  expend  it.  Science  made  the  basis  of  culture 
will  accomplish  this  result.  .  .  .  The  ideal  of  the  higher 
education  ...  is  a  scheme  of  study,  which,  while  it  repre- 
sents the  present  state  of  knowledge  and  affords  a  varied 
cultivation  and  a  harmonious  discipline,  shall  at  the  same 
time  best  prepare  for  the  reasonable  work  of  life." 

A  generation  earlier  similar  demands  were  made  and  simi- 
lar principles  of  relation  were  formulated  by  Combe  and  his 
confreres,  and  embodied  before  the  middle  of  the  century  in 
"the  secular  schools."  According  to  these  early  scientists, 
the  subjects  which  demand  first  consideration  are  those  which 
treat  of  man's  bodily  constitution,  anatomy  and  physiology. 
Second,  come  those  which  treat  of  man's  mental  constitution. 
Third,  come  the  physical  sciences,  —  those  that  treat  of  man's 
relation  to  external  nature.  Fourth,  are  those  that  treat  of 
man's  relations  to  his  fellow-men,  —  the  moral,  social,  and 
political  sciences.  Finally,  comes  instruction  in  religion. 

Thus,  according  to  the  scientific  view,  the  knowledge  of 
value  in  education  is  that  demanded  by  modern  life.  In 


682  History  of  Education 

regard  to  subject-matter  in  education  the  scientific  view  agrees 
with  the  sociological.  In  regard  to  the  foundation  of  method 
it  agrees  with  the  psychological ;  for  the  thought  common  to 
all  this  scientific  discussion  is  that  training  or  discipline  is 
not  developed  through  any  special  activity,  but  that  it  comes 
through  the  activity  that  is  valued  in  itself. 

In  their  more  recent  form  the  views  of  those  who  solve  the 
problems  of  education  from  the  point  of  view  of  modern 
science  are  in  advance  of  the  arguments  stated  above,  or  at 
least  are  stated  in  somewhat  different  terms.  These  views 
do  not  differ  materially  from  such  as  are  expressed  by  those 
who  approach  the  problem  from  the  social  significance  of 
education,  and  may  be  summarized  as  follows :  — 

The  elements  which  now  enter  into  culture  are  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  a  few  hundred  years  ago.  New  litera- 
tures have  developed  to  vie  with  those  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans ;  the  arts  have  been  perfected  beyond  the  dreams  of 
the  imagination  of  those  ages ;  the  new  sciences  have  been 
created  and  there  now  exists  a  knowledge  of  nature  and  of 
her  forces  that  in  comparison  with  the  interpretation  of  pre- 
ceding centuries  seems  most  exhaustive  and  positive.  Conse- 
quently it  is  necessary  to  define  anew  the  liberal  education. 
Studies  are  no  longer  considered  to  be  liberal  in  proportion 
to  their  remoteness  from  practical  bearing,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, in  proportion  to  their  direct  relationship  to  life.  A 
liberal  education  is  not  one  of  no  practical  bearing,  but  one 
which  fits  a  man  so  well  for  his  profession,  for  his  life  as  a 
citizen,  and  for  all  of  his  activities  in  life,  that  he  is  very 
much  broader  than  that  profession,  seeing  broadly  the  import 
of  his  actions  in  his  life  in  institutions.  Civil,  mechanical, 
chemical  engineering,  the  practical  application  of  any  of 
the  sciences  may  become  learned  professions,  and  the  prepa- 
ration for  these  may  in  itself  offer  a  liberal  education,  if  the 
individual  is  so  equipped  with  a  knowledge  of  the  fundamen- 
tal sciences  that  he  is  perfectly  "free"  through  his  mastery 


Scientific   Tendency  in  Education  683 

of  his  subject,  and  "  free  "  in  the  life  that  grows  out  from  and 
is  based  upon  that  profession.  Such  an  education  must  con- 
tain more  than  mere  rudiments  or  the  technical  instruction 
necessary  for  a  practitioner  in  these  arts  ;  it  must  include 
a  thorough  mastery  of  them.  For  such  a  career  the  study 
of  the  French  and  German  languages,  contributing  as  these 
literatures  may  in  the  broadest  manner  to  one's  success  by 
opening  to  him  the  experience  of  other  peoples  of  advanced 
civilization,  is  far  more  liberal  than  the  ordinary  instruction 
in  Greek  or  Latin  would  be.  Similarly  the  social,  political, 
and  economic  sciences,  contributing  as  they  do  a  knowledge 
of  the  complex  activities,  interests,  and  forces  of  modern 
social  life,  are  liberal  in  the  sense  that  the  old  disciplinary 
use  of  mathematics  could  not  be.  True,  a  man  in  such  lines 
of  scientific  activity  would  need  a  most  thorough  course  in 
mathematics,  but  for  an  entirely  different  purpose  from  that 
held  by  the  disciplinarians,  with  a  different  selection  of  the 
branches  of  mathematics  and  with  considerable  change  in 
method. 

A  liberal  education  is  one  containing  the  best  culture 
material  of  the  life  for  which  it  is  designed  to  prepare ;  and 
it  is  liberal  only  to  the  extent  that  it  includes  these  materials. 
The  natural  sciences  most  largely  contributed  to  the  culture  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  In  a  similar  way  the  social  sciences 
are  now  being  developed,  with  much  of  inspiration,  purpose, 
and  method  borrowed  from  the  natural  sciences.  Every 
aspect  of  life  and  thought  of  the  present  age  has  been  modi- 
fied and  given  its  tone  and  color  by  the  development  of  the 
natural  sciences.  Therefore,  an  education  that  constitutes 
a  liberal  preparation  for  present  life  must  include  a  large 
element  of  these  studies. 

But  since  it  is  impossible  that  every  youth  to  be  educated 
should  master  even  the  rudiments  of  all  these  sciences  in 
addition  to  much  of  the  old  material,  the  representatives  of 
this  view  of  education  have  usually  contented  themselves  with 


684  History  of  Education 

demanding  freedom  of  choice  in  the  selection  of  studies  and 
the  recognition  by  educational  authorities  of  the  equivalence 
in  value  of  the  sciences  in  the  course  of  study.  In  that  this 
demand  for  the  freedom  of  selection  of  subjects  is  but  another 
interpretation  of  the  education  of  interest,  the  scientific  tend 
ency  here  agrees  with  the  psychological. 

With  the  prevalence  of  such  a  conception  of  a  liberal  edu- 
cation and  such  an  organization  of  its  subjects,  it  will  be  pos* 
sible  for  the  ordinary  practitioner  in  any  of  the  professions  to 
combine  a  liberal  with  a  professional  or  technical  education. 
So  long  as  these  two  types  of  education  are  kept  so  entirely 
distinct  that  the  person  who  has  the  one  cannot  have  the 
other,  and  so  long  as  the  liberal  education  is  restricted  to  the 
mastery  of  a  few  subjects  to  which  the  majority  of  men  who 
enter  the  intellectual  callings  in  life  cannot  devote  time,  it 
must  follow  that  the  great  majority,  even  of  those  who  lead 
and  sustain  the  life  of  a  community,  will  continue  to  be  denied 
the  privileges  of  a  liberal  education. 

In  England  the  men  who  have  contributed  to  the  establish- 
ment of  this  view,  chief  among  whom  were  Spencer  and 
Huxley,  have  labored  for  the  most  part  outside  of  educational 
institutions ;  in  America  the  most  prominent  of  such  leaders, 
notably  President  Eliot  of  Harvard,  have  been  in  connection 
with  universities. 

THE  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION  FORMULATED  BY  THE 
NATURAL  SCIENTISTS.  —  While  there  were  numerous 
writers  of  minor  importance  who  continued  the  line  of  edu- 
cational thought  from  the  time  of  the  sense-realists,  it  is 
not  until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  the 
organization  of  the  natural  sciences  had  become  perfected, 
that  a  modern  presentation  of  their  educational  claims  could 
be  made.  The  first  of  these,  and  yet  the  most  influential, 
at  least  for  Anglo-Saxon  thought,  was  that  by  Herbert 
Spencer  (1820-1903'- 


Scientific  Tendency  in  Education  085 

"Education,  Intellectual,  Moral,  and  Physical,"  by  Herbert 
Spencer,  was  issued  in  1 860.  The  fundamental  characteristic 
of  the  scientific  tendency  is  revealed  early  in  the  treatise  in 
his  discussion  of  the  importance  of  the  selection  of  subjects 
of  study  as  the  vital  theory  in  education. 

"  If  there  needs  any  further  evidence  of  the  rude,  undevel- 
oped character  of  our  education,  we  have  it  in  the  fact  that 
the  comparative  worths  of  different  kinds  of  knowledge  have 
been  as  yet  scarcely  even  discussed  —  much  less  discussed  in 
a  methodic  way  with  definite  results.  Not  only  is  it  that  no 
standard  of  relative  values  has  yet  been  agreed  upon ;  but 
the  existence  of  any  such  standard  has  not  been  conceived 
in  any  clear  manner.  And  not  only  is  it  that  the  existence 
of  any  such  standard  has  not  been  clearly  conceived ;  but  the 
need  for  it  seems  to  have  been  scarcely  even  felt.  Men  read 
books  on  this  topic  and  attend  lectures  on  that ;  decide  that 
their  children  shall  be  instructed  in  these  branches  of  knowl- 
edge and  shall  not  be  instructed  in  those ;  and  all  under  the 
guidance  of  mere  custom,  or  liking  or  prejudice ;  without 
ever  considering  the  enormous  importance  of  determining 
in  some  rational  way  what  things  are  really  most  worth 
learning.  It  is  true  that  in  all  circles  we  have  occasional 
remarks  on  the  importance  of  this  or  the  other  order  of 
information.  But  whether  the  degree  of  its  importance 
justifies  the  expenditure  of  the  time  needed  to  acquire  it; 
and  whether  there  are  not  things  of  more  importance  to 
which  the  time  might  be  better  devoted ;  are  queries  which, 
if  raised  at  all,  are  disposed  of  quite  summarily,  according  to 
personal  predilections.  It  is  true,  also,  that  from  time  to 
time  we  hear  revived  the  standing  controversy  respecting 
the  comparative  merits  of  classics  and  mathematics.  Not 
only,  however,  is  this  controversy  carried  on  in  an  empirical 
manner,  with  no  reference  to  an  ascertained  criterion,  but 
the  question  at  issue  is  totally  insignificant  when  compared 
with  the  general  question  of  which  it  is  part.  To  suppose 
that  deciding  whether  a  mathematical  or  a  classical  educa- 
tion is  the  best,  is  deciding  what  is  the  proper  curriculum,  is 
much  the  same  thing  as  to  suppose  that  the  whole  of  dietetics 
lies  in  determining  whether  or  not  bread  is  more  nutritive 
than  potatoes." 


686  History  of  Education 

The  new  purpose,  basis,  and  method  of  education  empha 
sized  by  Bacon  are  here  again  clearly  presented.  The  pur- 
pose of  education  is  denned  as  preparation  for  complete 
living;  and  this  in  turn  is  judged  largely  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  welfare  of  the  individual,  though  of  the  indi- 
vidual as  living  in  fully  developed  society.  Rousseau's 
influence  is  evident,  but  the  thought  appears  in  a  radically 
modified  form.  "  How  to  live  ?  —  that  is  the  essential  ques- 
tion for  us.  Not  how  to  live  in  the  mere  material  sense 
only,  but  in  the  widest  sense.  The  general  problem  which 
comprehends  every  special  problem  is  —  the  right  ruling  of 
conduct  in  all  directions  under  all  circumstances.  .  .  .  To 
prepare  us  for  complete  living  is  the  function  which  education 
has  to  discharge ;  and  the  only  rational  mode  of  judging  of 
any  educational  course  is  to  judge  in  what  degree  it  dis- 
charges such  function." 

This  preparation  for  complete  living  consists,  first,  in  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge  that  is  best  adapted  for  the  devel- 
opment of  individual  and  social  life;  and,  secondly,  in  the 
development  of  the  power  to  use  this  knowledge.  What 
knowledge  is  of  most  worth  becomes,  as  with  Rousseau  and 
with  Bacon,  the  chief  question  of  educational  importance. 
To  this  question  Spencer  gives  this  definite  categorical 
answer.  Knowledge  which  leads  directly  to  self-preserva- 
tion, such  as  the  sciences  of  physiology,  hygiene,  physics, 
and  chemistry,  is  of  first  importance.  Knowledge  which 
leads  indirectly  to  self-preservation  through  the  sciences  and 
arts  relating  to  the  securing  of  food,  clothing,  and  shelter 
comes  next.  Third,  in  order  of  importance,  is  the  knowledge 
of  rearing  of  offspring,  which,  in  strange  contrast  with  the 
attention  given  to  the  breeding  of  animals  and  the  training 
required  of  a  builder  of  bridges  or  a  maker  of  shoes,  is 
wholly  neglected.  On  the  other  hand,  any  parent  or  teacher 
is  presumed  to  be  capable  of  bringing  up  a  child  without  any 
preparation.  Fourth  in  order  is  the  knowledge  of  social  and 


Scientific   Tendency  in  Education  687 

political  life  such  as  shall  make  one  an  intelligent  citizen  and 
neighbor.  Last  of  all  comes  the  knowledge  of  literature, 
art,  aesthetics,  including  foreign  languages  and  literature, 
which,  since  occupying  the  leisure  of  life,  should  also  occupy 
the  leisure  of  education.  Thus  the  natural  sciences  demanded 
by  the  first  three  needs  take  precedence  over  the  social 
sciences  demanded  by  the  fourth  need  and  over  the  "liberal" 
or  "  culture "  subjects,  at  that  time  the  basis  of  all  school 
work.  While  this  constitutes  a  negation  of  the  Renaissance 
emphasis  upon  literature  and  languages,  it  is  not,  as  with 
Rousseau,  a  denial  of  the  value  of  knowledge ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  an  altogether  new  emphasis  upon  that  value. 

Since  Spencer  is  the  one  English  writer  on  the  subject  of 
education  during  the  nineteenth  century  that  has  exerted  any 
particular  influence  and  received  any  particular  attention, 
many  criticisms  not  altogether  valid  are  passed  upon  his 
ideas.  A  statement  of  these  objections  and  of  the  points 
wherein  they  err  is  desirable,  in  order  to  understand  clearly 
Spencer's  position. 

The  most  frequent  objection  is  made  to  its  utilitarian  char- 
acter, —  to  its  somewhat  radical  application  of  Rousseau's  test, 
"  Of  what  use  ? "  While  this  test  led  to  a  rejection  of  all  that 
was  held  most  dear  in  traditional  educational  work,  especially 
of  the  idea  with  strong  classical  support  that  a  subject  lost 
its  educational  value  as  it  gained  practical  value,  yet  the  utili- 
tarianism of  the  naturalists  and  the  scientists  was  almost 
identical  with  the  "  practical "  of  Kant  and  the  "  aesthetic  "  of 
Herbart,  or  what  is  commonly  meant  by  the  term  "  moral." 
That  which  affects  conduct  directly,  improves  life,  benefits 
man  individually  or  in  society,  is  "  utilitarian."  It  is  true  that 
Spencer  sacrifices  some  of  the  amenities  of  life,  but  chiefly 
that  he  may  gain  for  the  neglected  many  what  hitherto  has 
been  the  perquisite  of  the  privileged  few.  It  is  said  that 
Spencer  sacrifices  that  which  is  higher  in  life  —  its  culture  — 
for  that  which  is  lower — its  practical  advantage.  On  the  con- 


688  History  of  Education 

trary,  he  emphasizes  the  importance  of  the  cultural  elements 
in  an  entirely  new  way ;  for  his  argument  is  that  all  these 
phases  of  knowledge  should  be  emphasized  and  that  every 
individual  should  be  permitted  some  attainment  or  acquisi- 
tion in  each.  In  place  of  an  educational  and  social  scheme 
which  gave  to  a  limited  few  the  education  of  a  life  of  leisure 
without  any  of  the  practically  useful,  and  to  others  an  edu- 
cation of  the  most  meager  character  in  the  dullest  routine 
of  life,  he  demands  such  a  readjustment  as  shall  give  to 
every  individual  an  education  including  some  of  all  these 
elements  emphasized  in  the  order  mentioned. 

Another  criticism  is  found  in  the  objection,  raised  from 
the  pedagogical  point  of  view,  that  education  is  not  a  prepa- 
ration for  life,  but  that  it  is  life.  To  a  certain  extent  this 
objection  is  a  mere  juggling  with  words.  So  far  as  valid,  it 
is  that  Spencer  overestimated  the  value  of  knowledge  as  a 
preparation.  This  is  characteristic  of  the  entire  scientific 
tendency.  Yet  this  error  is  combined  with  a  truer  concep- 
tion of  the  nature  of  knowledge  than  was  the  case  in  previous 
educational  theories  where  the  same  defect  existed.  On  the 
other  hand,  by  way  of  justification,  it  must  be  recognized 
that  his  position  is  but  a  reaction  against  the  over-emphasis 
on  method  given  by  the  disciplinarians  and,  in  a  quite  dif- 
ferent way,  by  those  representing  the  psychological  tendency. 
It  will  be  recognized  that,  on  this  point,  the  scientific  tend- 
ency is  a  more  radical  reaction  against  the  disciplinary  view 
of  education  than  was  the  psychological. 

In  answer  to  the  second  question,  that  is,  how  to  develop 
the  power  to  use  the  knowledge,  Spencer  is  far  less  specific 
and  direct.  His  answer,  which  is  a  begging  of  the  question,  is 
that  the  acquisition  of  the  knowledge  of  most  worth  will  give 
the  power  to  use  it,  otherwise  there  would  be  a  violation  of 
the  harmony  and  economy  of  nature.  The  juggling  with  the 
term  "  nature  "  results  in  this  obiter  dictum,  which  is  in  curi- 
ous contradiction  to  the  process  of  reasoning  recommended 


Scientific  Tendency  in  Education  689 

by  the  scientist.  So  far  as  the  individual  is  concerned,  nature 
is  not  economical  but  notoriously  prodigal.  More  specifically 
he  answers  that  the  study  of  the  sciences  will  result  in  a 
better  training  in  memory,  in  the  use  of  the  understanding 
and  of  the  judgment.  But  in  the  argument  he  seems  to  be 
wholly  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  linguistic  training  offers 
anything  more  than  a  training  in  memory. 

In  the  essay  on  Intellectual  Education  he  discusses  more 
fully  the  question  of  method,  but  adds  nothing  to  the  ideas 
of  those  who  attempted  to  base  education  upon  psychology. 
Of  these  he  seems  to  be  conversant  with  only  one,  Pestalozzi. 
Spencer's  discussions  consist  only  in  an  elaboration  of  a  num- 
ber of  Pestalozzi's  principles,  such  as  that  education  should  pro- 
ceed from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  from  the  concrete  to  the 
abstract,  from  empirical  to  rational,  and  should  be  pleasurable ; 
he  adds  nothing  of  value  to  them.  The  one  principle,  pre- 
viously noted  under  Rousseau,  that  all  moral  training  should 
result  from  allowing  the  child  to  suffer  the  natural  conse- 
quences of  his  own  action,  is  emphasized  as  the  essence  of 
moral  education. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  one  great  contribution  of  Spencer 
was  to  reemphasize  the  three  points  first  defined  by  Bacon,  to 
state  these  in  terms  of  modern  science  and  of  modern  educa- 
tional thought,  and  to  put  the  arguments  in  a  form  that  would 
appeal  to  the  nineteenth-century  thought. 

Thomas  H.  Huxley  (1825-1895)  accomplished  more  for  the 
actual  extension  of  education  in  the  natural  sciences  than 
any  other  Englishman.  As  member  of  the  first  London 
School  Board,  as  university  professor,  as  lecturer  on  edu- 
cational and  scientific  topics,  and  as  a  writer,  he  did  more 
in  a  practical  way  than  Spencer  through  his  one  famous 
treatise.  Though  Huxley's  writings  or  addresses  on  educa- 
tion are  very  numerous,  his  main  points  are  but  a  reemphasis 
of  those  made  by  Spencer,  Bacon,  and  others,  put  in  a  some- 
what different  form.  The  practical  purpose,  the  realistic 

2'f 


690  History  of  Education 

basis,  the  criticism  of   the  prevailing   literary  and   classical 
education,  is  given  in  the  following  trenchant  passage:  — 

"  Now  let  us  pause  to  consider  this  wonderful  state  of 
affairs  ;  for  the  time  will  come  when  Englishmen  will  quote 
it  as  the  stock  example  of  the  stolid  stupidity  of  their  ances- 
tors in  the  nineteenth  century.  The  most  thoroughly  com- 
mercial people,  the  greatest  voluntary  wanderers  and  colonists 
the  world  has  ever  seen,  are  precisely  the  middle  classes  of 
this  country.  If  there  be  a  people  which  has  been  busy  mak- 
ing history  on  the  great  scale  for  the  last  three  hundred  years, 
— and  the  most  profoundly  interesting  history, —  history  which, 
if  it  happened  to  be  that  of  Greece  or  Rome,  we  should  study 
with  avidity  —  it  is  the  English.  If  there  be  a  people  which, 
during  the  same  period,  has  developed  a  remarkable  literature, 
it  is  our  own.  If  there  be  a  nation  whose  prosperity  depends 
absolutely  and  wholly  upon  their  mastery  over  the  forces  of 
nature,  upon  their  intelligent  apprehension  of,  and  obedience 
to,  the  laws  of  creation,  and  distribution  of  wealth,  and  of  the 
stable  equilibrium  of  the  forces  of  society,  it  is  precisely  this 
nation.  And  yet  this  is  what  these  wonderful  people  tell 
their  sons  :  '  At  the  cost  of  from  one  to  two  thousand  pounds 
of  our  hard-earned  money,  we  devote  twelve  of  the  most  pre- 
cious years  of  your  lives  to  school.  There  you  shall  toil,  or 
be  supposed  to  toil ;  but  there  you  shall  not  learn  one  single 
thing  of  all  those  you  will  most  want  to  know  directly  you 
leave  school  and  enter  upon  the  practical  business  life.  You 
will  in  all  probability  go  into  business,  but  you  shall  not  know 
where,  or  how,  any  article  of  commerce  is  produced,  or  the 
difference  between  an  export  or  an  import,  or  the  meaning 
of  the  word  "  capital."  You  will  very  likely  settle  in  a  colony, 
but  you  shall  not  know  whether  Tasmania  is  part  of  New 
South  Wales,  or  vice  versa.  .  .  .  Very  probably  you  may  become 
a  manufacturer,  but  you  shall  not  be  provided  with  the  means 
of  understanding  the  working  of  one  of  your  own  steam 
engines  or  the  nature  of  the  raw  products  you  employ ;  and, 
when  you  are  asked  to  buy  a  patent,  you  shall  not  have  the 
slightest  means  of  judging  whether  the  inventor  is  an  impostor 
who  is  contravening  the  elementary  principles  of  science  or  a 
man  who  will  make  you  as  rich  as  Croesus.  You  will  very 
likely  get  into  the  House  of  Commons.  You  will  have  to 


Scientific   Tendency  in  Education  69*. 

take  your  share  in  making  laws  which  may  prove  a  blessing 
or  a  curse  to  millions  of  men.  But  you  shall  not  hear  one 
word  respecting  the  political  organization  of  your  country; 
the  meaning  of  the  controversy  between  free  traders  and  pro- 
tectionists shall  never  have  been  mentioned  to  you ;  you  shall 
not  so  much  as  know  that  there  are  such  things  as  economi- 
cal laws.  The  mental  power  which  will  be  of  most  impor- 
tance in  your  daily  life  will  be  the  power  of  seeing  things  as 
they  are  without  regard  to  authority ;  and  of  drawing  accurate 
general  conclusions  from  particular  facts.  But  at  school  and 
at  college  you  shall  know  of  no  source  of  truth  but  authority ; 
nor  exercise  your  reasoning  faculty  upon  anything  but  deduc- 
tion from  that  which  is  laid  down  by  authority.  You  will 
have  to  weary  your  soul  with  work,  and  many  a  time  eat  your 
bread  in  sorrow  and  in  bitterness,  and  you  shall  not  have 
learned  to  take  refuge  in  the  great  source  of  pleasure  without 
alloy,  the  serene  resting  place  for  worn  human  nature,  —  the 
world  of  art.'  Said  I  not  rightly  that  we  are  a  wonderful  peo- 
ple ?  I  am  quite  prepared  to  allow  that  education  entirely 
devoted  to  these  omitted  subjects  might  not  be  completely 
liberal  education.  But  is  an  education  which  ignores  them 
all  a  liberal  education  ?  Nay,  is  it  too  much  to  say  that  the 
education  which  should  embrace  these  subjects  and  no  others 
would  be  a  real  education,  though  an  incomplete  one ;  while 
an  education  which  omits  them  is  really  not  an  education 
at  all,  but  a  more  or  less  useful  course  of  intellectual 
gymnastics  ? " 

Huxley  did  not  admit  that  the  prevailing  education  was 
literary,  for  the  study  of  grammar  and  language  structure  is 
scientific  rather  than  literary.  The  schoolboy  never  reached 
the  literary  stage,  and  the  training  he  got  in  the  languages 
was  very  poor  science  as  to  its  method,  and  in  content  of  no 
value  at  all.  The  argument  that  universal  and  practical  edu- 
cation would  be  of  no  avail  since  neither  poverty,  crime,  nor 
misery  had  decreased  with  education,  he  answers  by  say- 
ing that  this  fact  simply  shows  the  uselessness  of  the  old 
education,  without  revealing  any  theory  about  a  truer  educa- 
tional procedure. 


092  History  of  Education 

The  purpose  and  conception  of  the  process  of  education  is 
stated  in  Huxley's  notable  description  of  the  product  of  a 
liberal  education. 

"  That  man,  I  think,  has  had  a  liberal  education  who  has 
been  so  trained  in  youth  that  his  body  is  the  ready  servant  of 
his  will,  and  does  with  ease  and  pleasure  all  the  work  that,  as 
a  mechanism,  it  is  capable  of ;  whose  intellect  is  a  clear,  cold, 
logic  engine,  with  all  its  parts  of  equal  strength,  and  in  smooth 
working  order ;  ready,  like  a  steam  engine,  to  be  turned  to 
any  kind  of  work,  and  spin  the  gossamers  as  well  as  forge  the 
anchors  of  the  mind ;  whose  mind  is  stored  with  a  knowledge 
of  the  great  and  fundamental  truths  of  nature,  and  of  the 
laws  of  her  operations ;  one  who,  no  stunted  ascetic,  is  full  of 
life  and  fire,  but  whose  passions  are  trained  to  come  to  heel 
by  a  vigorous  will,  the  servant  of  a  tender  conscience ;  who 
has  learned  to  love  all  beauty,  whether  of  nature  or  of  art,  to 
hate  all  vileness  and  to  respect  others  as  himself.  Such  an 
one,  and  no  other,  I  conceive  has  had  a  liberal  education ;  for 
he  is,  as  completely  as  a  man  can  be,  in  harmony  with  nature." 

SCIENCE   IN  THE  CURRICULUM.     In  the  Universities 

and  Colleges.  —  The  scientific  study  of  nature  was  fostered  in 
the  earlier  centuries  of  the  modern  era  more  by  academies  of 
science,  beginning  with  that  of  Naples  in  1560,  than  by  the 
universities.  While  the  scientific  spirit  was  embodied  in  the 
University  of  Halle  from  its  foundations,  it  was  in  these  acad- 
emies and  mz/-schools  that  science  received  its  chief  culti- 
vation. In  France  the  beginnings  of  higher  instruction  in 
science  of  a  modern  type  were  also  outside  of  the  universities. 
The  Republic,  in  1794,  founded  the  normal  school  at  Paris, 
where  the  most  famous  French  scientists,  including  Laplace 
and  Lagrange,  gave  instruction.  In  England  the  study  of 
mathematical  and  physical  sciences  in  the  universities  had 
been  given  an  impetus  by  Newton,  but  there  was  no  study 
of  the  biological  science  and  no  use  of  scientific  method  by 
students  until  much  later.  Modern  scientific  teaching  in  the 
universities,  together  with  the  experimental  use  of  laboratories 


Scientific  Tendency  tn  Education  693 

by  students,  may  be  said  to  have  been  begun  about  1825  by 
Liebig  at  Giessen.  In  England  scientific  instruction  developed 
altogether  independently  of  the  universities ;  the  College  of 
Chemistry  was  founded  in  1845,  and  the  School  of  Mines  was 
established  by  the  government  in  1851.  The  Department  of 
Science  and  Art,  founded  in  1853,  also  fostered  advanced 
scientific  study.  The  royal  schools  above  mentioned,  together 
with  the  normal  training  classes  started  in  1868,  were  gradu 
ally  brought  together,  and  in  1890  were  reorganized  under 
the  title  of  the  Royal  College  of  Science.  Engineering 
schools  and  science  schools  in  connection  with  the  army  and 
navy  had  already  been  instituted  shortly  after  the  middle  of 
the  century. 

In  1860  the  Faculty  of  Science  was  created  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  London,  and  the  degrees  of  doctor  and  bachelor  of 
science  were  first  given.  It  was  not  until  1869  that  the 
courses  in  science  were  established  in  any  number  in  Oxford 
and  Cambridge.  While  there  has  been  rapid  development 
recently,  and  while  a  large  Carnegie  fund  has  been  devoted  to 
fostering  science  in  the  Scottish  universities,  it  is  generally 
recognized  that  Great  Britain  is  almost  a  century  behind  the 
continent  in  the  teaching  of  science. 

In  the  United  States.  —  Science  appeared  in  the  curriculum 
of  American  colleges  in  the  earliest  days.  Astronomy  ap- 
peared in  President  Dunster's  program  of  studies  at  Harvard 
in  1642 ;  and  in  the  other  colleges  in  the  order  of  their  ap- 
pearance. In  this  same  program  it  was  specified  that  the 
seniors  shall  study  "  the  nature  of  plants  "  for  one  hour  on 
Saturday  afternoons  during  the  summer  months.  But  no 
further  mention  of  botany  appears  until  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Physics,  or  natural  philosophy,  is  the  sec- 
ond science  in  the  order  of  appearance.  It  was  given  place 
at  Harvard  in  1690,  and  may  have  appeared  earlier.  Very 
early  in  the  eighteenth  century  it  appeared  at  Yale  also.  By 
\he  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  geography  and  the  use 


694  History  of  Education 

of  globes,  probably  incorporated  under  astronomy  in  thj 
earlier  colleges,  appeared  at  Princeton  (founded  1746)  along 
with  astronomy  and  physics.  "  Geographical  grammar," 
along  with  natural  philosophy  and  astronomy,  constituted  the 
sciences  in  the  Harvard  curriculum  of  1742-1743. 

It  was  with  the  founding  of  two  new  institutions,  King's 
College,  now  Columbia,  in  1754,  and  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  in  1755  (or  1751  as  an  academy;,  that  an 
entirely  new  tendency  was  begun.  Neither  of  these  colleges 
was  under  denominational  control ;  and  though,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  the  classical  languages  yet  occupied  the  central 
place,  divinity  as  an  important  study  had  disappeared  from 
the  curriculum.  In  the  advertisement  for  King's  College  in 
a  New  York  paper,  May  i,  1754,  the  following  is  the  fifth 
section  :  — 

"  And,  lastly,  a  serious,  virtuous,  and  industrious  Course  of 
Life  being  first  provided  for,  it  is  further  the  Design  of  this 
College,  to  instruct  and  perfect  the  Youth  in  the  Learned 
Languages,  and  in  the  Arts  of  reasoning  exactly  and  writing 
correctly,  and  speaking  eloquently ;  and  in  the  Arts  of  num- 
beringand  measuring ;  of  Surveying  and  Navigation,  of  Geog- 
raphy and  History,  of  Husbandry,  Commerce,  and  Government, 
and  in  the  knowledge  of  all  Nature,  in  the  Heavens  above  us, 
and  in  the  Air,  Water,  and  Earth  around  us,  and  in  the  various 
kinds  of  Meteors,  Stones,  Mines,  and  Minerals,  Plants,  and 
Animals,  and  of  everything  useful  for  the  Comfort,  the  Con- 
venience, and  Elegance  of  Life,  in  the  chief  Manufactures 
relating  to  any  of  these  things,  and  finally,  to  lead  them  from 
the  Study  of  Nature  to  the  Knowledge  of  themselves,  and  of 
the  God  of  Nature,  and  their  Duty  to  him,  themselves  and 
one  another,  and  every  Thing  that  can  contribute  to  their  true 
Happiness,  both  here  and  hereafter." 

This  scheme  was  actually  incorporated  into  a  curriculum 
by  President  Johnson,  but  with  a  change  of  presidents  in 
1762  a  more  restricted  curriculum  prevailed  and  no  marked 
advance  was  made  until  after  the  Revolution.  In  the  cur 


Scientific  Tendency  in  Education  695 

riculum  of  1756  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  natural 
philosophy,  a  great  range  of  applied  mathematics,  astronomy, 
natural  history,  chemistry,  and  agriculture  appeared.  Chemis- 
try also  appeared  at  Harvard  in  1760.  In  1779,  with  the 
inauguration  of  James  Madison  as  President  of  William  and 
Mary,  but  chiefly  owing  to  the  influence  of  Thomas  Jefferson, 
the  general  plan  of  King's  and  of  Pennsylvania  was  carried 
to  that  College ;  chemistry  and  medicine  were  introduced, 
the  chair  of  divinity  was  abolished,  and  a  curriculum  com- 
posed largely  of  the  natural,  political,  and  social  sciences  was 
substituted  for  the  narrow  Oxford  curriculum  previously  in 
vogue.  At  Yale,  under  President  Stiles,  after  the  Revolution, 
chemistry,  botany,  and  zoology  were  introduced,  Hebrew  was 
made  elective  and  French  offered  as  a  substitute.  In  1787 
a  course  in  natural  history  was  offered  "to  those  that 
obtained  permission  of  parents  or  of  guardians." 

The  opening  of  courses  in  medicine  in  these  colleges,  first 
at  King's  in  1767,  at  Harvard  in  1782,  and  at  Pennsylvania 
in  1791,  was  one  other  important  aspect  of  the  development 
of  the  study  of  the  sciences.  In  1792  a  faculty  of  physic, 
consisting  of  a  dean  and  seven  professors,  complementary  to 
the  faculty  of  languages,  was  established  at  Columbia. 

In  1825,  at  Harvard,  mechanics  and  optics  appeared  as 
separate  courses ;  mineralogy  and  geology  were  added  to 
astronomy,  chemistry,  and  natural  history;  electricity  and 
magnetism  first  appeared  as  separate  subjects ;  the  philoso- 
phy of  natural  history  was  announced  as  a  separate  course 
and  special  lectures  in  physiology  were  given.  Mineralogy, 
geology,  and  botany  appeared  at  Princeton  in  1830,  as  had 
chemistry  in  1803  and  natural  history  still  earlier.  To  natural 
philosophy,  chemistry,  astronomy,  and  geography,  the  subjects 
of  mineralogy  and  geology  were  added  at  Yale  in  1824. 
Electricity  appeared  as  a  separate  course  in  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  in  1811. 

So  far  as  mentioned,  these  scientific  subjects  were  all  incor 


696  History  of  Education 

porated  as  required  studies,  and  the  disciplinary  conception 
of  education  prevailed  and  was  distinctly  enunciated  by 
various  faculties.  The  conception  of  interest,  or  of  the 
capacities  and  desires  of  the  individual,  began  to  be  recog- 
nized before  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia  was  established  in  1825  upon  the  basis  of 
the  complete  freedom  of  choice  by  the  student.  Advocacy 
of  the  system  at  Harvard  began  in  1825,  and  considerable  free- 
dom was  allowed  students  from  about  1845.  Not  until  1869  was 
the  system  of  complete  freedom  in  election  of  studies  estab- 
lished, with  the  administration  of  President  Eliot.  Earlier 
than  this  Presidents  Wayland  of  Brown  and  Nott  of  Union 
had  stood  for  this  broader  conception  of  the  college  course. 
With  the  elective  system  came  the  general  ascendency  of  the 
scientific  subjects.  The  establishment  of  Cornell  University, 
in  1867,  upon  a  basis  of  complete  freedom  with  a  strong  bias  in 
favor  of  the  scientific  and  technical  subjects,  completed  this 
phase  of  the  movement  toward  the  general  introduction  of 
the  sciences  into  higher  education.  Meanwhile,  in  Harvard 
(1847)  and  Yale  (1860),  special  schools  of  science  had  been 
established. 

The  earliest  scientific  school  of  higher  grade  was  the 
Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute,  founded  in  1824  at  Troy> 
New  York.  The  advanced  character  of  the  scientific  work 
can  be  judged  from  this  direction  to  the  board  of  trustees; 
"  These  [the  students]  are  not  to  be  taught  by  seeing  experi- 
ments  and  hearing  lectures  according  to  the  usual  method. 
But  they  are  to  lecture  and  experiment  by  turn,  under  the 
immediate  direction  of  a  professor  or  competent  assistant. 
Thus  by  a  term  of  labor,  like  apprentices  to  a  trade,  they  are 
to  become  operative  chemists."  The  Morrill  land  grant  of 
1862,  by  which  Congress  appropriated  thirteen  million  acres 
of  land  for  maintenance  in  each  state  of  a  college  devoted 
chiefly  to  those  branches  of  learning  related  to  agriculture 
and  mechanic  arts, though  "without  excluding  other  scientific 


Scientific   Tendency  in  Education  6q7 

and  classical  studies,"  developed  an  entirely  new  type  of 
scientific  school.  These  are  the  schools  of  applied  science 
found  either  in  connection  with  state  universities  or  as  inde- 
pendent institutions  in  almost  every  state  in  the  Union. 

Science  in  the  Secondary  Schools.  —  In  Germany  the  intro- 
duction of  science  through  the  sense-realistic  movement  has 
been  noted.  Through  the  influence  of  the  philanthropinists 
and  of  the  materialistic  thought  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  new  humanistic  movement  on  the  other,  the  rigid 
classical  conception  of  education  was  modified,  and  in  1816 
science  was  introduced  into  the  Prussian  gymnasium,  and  at 
a  somewhat  later  period  into  those  of  the  Southern  German 
states.  Though  but  two  hours  per  week  were  allotted  to 
physics  and  natural  history,  —  and  even  less  in  the  southern 
or  Catholic  regions,  —  science  retained  its  hold  upon  the 
classical  schools,  despite  the  reactionary  movement  that  took 
place  between  the  Congress  of  Vienna  and  1848.  In  1855 
two  types  of  mz/-schools  were  recognized  :  one  with  the  full 
nine-year  course  with  Latin  yet  represented  in  every  year ; 
and  the  seat-school  of  the  second  grade,  with  its  curriculum 
determined  largely  by  local  authorities.  In  1882  these  be- 
came the  Rcalgyinnasium,  the  Oberrealschule  of  nine  year.*' 
course  without  Latin,  and  the  real-sc/tule  of  a  less  number 
of  years.  In  these  schools  twice  as  much  time  is  given  to 
natural  history,  physics,  chemistry,  and  mineralogy  as  in  the 
gymnasicn  (thirty-six  week-hours  for  the  nine  years  in  the 
real-schulen\  and  a  much  greater  emphasis  put  upon  mathe- 
matics, geography,  and  drawing.  Allied  to  the  real-schnlen  - 
scientific  or  English  high  schools  we  would  call  them  —  arc  the 
technical  schools,  which  have  achieved  such  practical  success 
and  such  perfection  of  method  and  organization  during  the 
present  generation.  These  began  with  the  technical  schools 
of  Nuremberg,  organized  in  1823.  While  technical  subjects 
are  most  emphasized,  the  scientific  and  mathematical  subjects 
as  the  bases  for  the  work  in  the  applied  sciences  are  made 


098  History  of  Education 

prominent.  Such  schools  have  assumed  prominence  and 
numbers  since  the  middle  of  the  century  (p.  742). 

In  England,  as  in  our  own  country,  the  introduction  of 
scientific  subjects  into  the  secondary  curriculum  is  identical 
with  the  academy  movement.  The  importance  of  the  acade- 
mies declined  during  the  eighteenth  century,  and  in  the 
numerous  "  public  schools  "  and  those  not  on  foundations 
but  of  purely  private  character  little  was  done  to  continue 
any  interest  in  the  study  of  the  sciences.  With  the  second 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  popular  controversy 
between  the  sciences  and  the  classics  in  secondary  education 
began  and  was  continued  with  enthusiasm  for  many  years. 
Headed  by  George  Combe,  this  controversy  first  concerned 
the  schools  of  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  and,  about  1835,  ted  to 
the  establishment  of  secondary  schools  that  laid  much  stress 
upon  the  sciences  in  opposition  to  the  flourishing  classical 
high  schools  and  institutes.  In  1849  other  "secular  schools," 
as  the  type  now  came  to  be  called,  were  founded  and  a  society 
fostering  such  schools  was  established.  The  controversy 
initiated  (p.  679)  did  much  to  hasten  the  first  steps  toward 
the  reform  of  schools  during  the  decades  of  the  sixties  and 
seventies.  Up  to  this  time  no  change  had  been  made  in  the 
attitude  of  the  "  public  schools  "  toward  the  sciences. 

In  1856,  in  answer  to  the  expressed  opinion  of  the  Univer- 
sity Commissions  for  Winchester,  "  that  good  elementary 
instruction  in  physical  science  is  essential  in  the  case  of  many 
boys,  desirable  in  all  cases,  and  perfectly  compatible  with 
a  first-rate  classical  education,"  that  college  instituted  a 
course  "of  ten  or  twelve  lectures  —  delivered  once  a  year." 
After  ten  years  this  was  extended  into  a  series  of  lectures 
continuing  throughout  the  year  with  appropriate  examina- 
tions. After  the  public  school  acts  of  Parliament  in  1868, 
which  revealed  that  there  was  an  almost  total  absence  of  study 
of  the  sciences  in  the  five  hundred  and  seventy-two  endowed 
secondary  schools,  a  "  modern  side  "  came  to  be  organized  in 


Scientific   Tendency  in  Education  699 

all  of  the  more  prominent  of  these  schools,  though  tardily  in 
some  and  with  minor  attention  and  unconcealed  disparage- 
ment in  all.  Natural  history  and  physics  were  included 
along  with  modern  languages  and  history  in  this  modern  side. 
While  this  condition  has  much  improved,  the  serious  attention 
given  to  instruction  in  the  sciences  is  fostered  by  the  De- 
partment for  Science  and  Art  (in  1898  combined  with  the 
Department  of  Education).  This  department  was  created  in 
1853,  though  appropriations  had  been  made  by  Parliament 
from  1836.  Little  of  importance  was  done  until  after  1859. 
Schools  or  classes  in  which  instruction  is  afforded  in  physics, 
zoology,  chemistry,  geology,  mineralogy,  botany,  as  well  as 
in  a  variety  of  practical  subjects,  are  now  granted  a  sub- 
vention. In  this  manner  more  than  ten  thousand  classes 
are  assisted  at  the  present  time.  In  1901  there  were  seventy- 
eight  independent  "  science  schools  "  of  secondary  rank. 

In  America  the  academies  were  the  home  of  instruction  in 
the  sciences  from  the  first  (p.  500).  Astronomy  and  "  natural 
philosophy  "  were  naturally  the  ones  most  emphasized,  since 
they  were  those  most  systematically  formulated  during  the 
eighteenth  century.  Geography  was  almost  universally 
taught  in  these  schools  and  chemistry  frequently.  After  the 
publication  of  the  first  American  geography  by  Morse  in 
1784,  this  study  acquired  a  firmer  hold  than  ever  upon  the 
academies.  A  list  of  text-books  published  in  the  United 
States  in  1804  includes  six  geographies  as  the  only  scientific 
text-book  besides  those  of  applied  mathematics,  such  as  sur- 
veying and  navigation.  By  1832  there  were  39  geographies, 
1 1  astronomies,  6  botanies,  5  chemistries,  6  natural  philoso- 
phies. Most  of  these  were  designed  for  use  in  academies. 
It  is  needless  to  add  that  all  the  sciences  were  studied  from 
books,  though  resort  was  frequently  made  for  illustration  to 
experimentation  with  apparatus.  The  first  unmistakable 
evidence  that  any  of  these  subjects  composed  a  vital  part 
of  the  secondary  curriculum  was  the  inclusion  of  geography 


700  History  of  Education 

among  the  college  entrance  requirements  by  Harvard  in  1807. 
No  other  science  followed  as  an  entrance  requirement  until 
physical  geography  was  added  in  1870,  and  physics  two 
years  later. 

With  the  development  of  the  early  high  schools,  the  same 
emphasis  upon  the  sciences  was  continued.  The  earliest  high 
school,  that  of  Boston,  founded  in  1821,  included  geography 
in  the  first  year  ;  geometry,  trigonometry,  navigation,  and  sur- 
veying, in  the  second  ;  and  natural  philosophy  and  astron- 
omy in  the  third.  All  of  the  earlier  schools  of  this  type, 
whether  called  free  academies,  city  colleges,  English  clas- 
sical schools,  union  schools,  or  high  schools,  continued  the 
same  attitude  toward  the  sciences.  After  1870  the  character 
of  these  schools  was  vastly  improved,  their  number  increased, 
and  the  work  in  science  was  expanded  to  include  physics,  chem- 
istry, botany,  and  zoology,  in  well-organized  courses.  Until 
quite  recently,  however,  the  policy  of  giving  numerous  general 
courses  of  superficial  character  prevailed  over  that  of  a  more 
substantial  mastery  by  more  thorough  experimental  methods 
of  a  comparatively  few  subjects.  While  the  curriculum  of 
the  high  school  gives  an  important  place  to  the  sciences,  the 
institution  itself  was  an  outgrowth  of  the  sociological  tendency 
to  be  noted  later. 

Science  in  the  Elementary  School. — In  Germany  the  influ- 
ence of  the  naturalistic  tendency  under  Basedow  has  been 
mentioned.  It  was  the  Pestalozzian  movement,  introduced 
into  Prussia  in  1810,  and  into  other  German  states  later,  that 
made  such  elementary  science  studies  general.  Geometry  was 
incorporated  into  the  curriculum  of  the  upper  grades  and 
drawing  throughout  the  course.  Geography,  taught  by  induc- 
tive method  and  introducing  much  general  information  of 
scientific  character,  was  included  throughout.  The  study  of 
science,  including  elementary  physics,  physiology,  and  natural 
history  that  dealt  with  the  phenomena  of  botany  and  zoology 
in  an  elementary  scientific  way,  was  introduced  into  the  middle 


'Scientific   Tendency  in  Education  701 

and  upper  grades.  In  most  of  the  grades  these  sciences 
were  allowed  two  hours  a  week,  though  in  some  of  the  upper 
grades  four.  This  remains  the  situation  to  the  present  time. 
For  almost  a  century,  then,  science  has  been  recognized  as 
one  of  the  subjects  of  the  elementary  schools  throughout 
almost  the  whole  of  the  German-speaking  countries. 

In  England.  —  The  condition  of  elementary  schools  was  so 
chaotic  until  the  establishment  of  board,  or  public,  schools  in 
1870,  that  it  is  difficult  to  speak  of  general  conditions.  The 
attitude  of  the  Department  of  Science  and  Art  in  fostering 
science  study,  especially  in  giving  encouragement  to  draw- 
ing and  recently  to  manual  training,  has  been  mentioned. 
The  establishment  of  numerous  organized  science  schools 
since  1872  by  the  same  department  has  also  been  referred  to. 
Until  1900  the  "  three  R's  "  were  the  only  required  studies  in 
the  primary  schools.  The  teaching  of  other  subjects  was  con- 
trolled by  the  governmental  grants  given  for  results  in  various 
subjects.  The  most  popular  of  these  supplementary  subjects 
were  geography  and  elementary  science.  These  have  now 
been  included  in  the  compulsory  course. 

In  the  United  States.  —  The  question  concerning  the  proper 
subjects  for  the  elementary  curriculum  hardly  existed  before 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  "  three  R's  —  read- 
ing, writing,  and  arithmetic,"  with  spelling  and  grammar,  were 
without  any  rivals  whatever.  In  fact,  the  average  school 
included  only  reading,  spelling,  and  English  grammar,  while 
those  of  a  superior  sort  added  writing,  arithmetic,  geography, 
and  history.1 

The  first  subject  of  scientific  character  that  made  any 
headway  in  its  claims  for  representation  was  geography.  By 
1832,  thirty-nine  geographies  and  atlases,  many  of  them  for 
elementary  school  work,  had  been  published  in  the  United 
States.  The  second  subject  of  scientific  nature  to  find 
entrance  into  the  elementary  curriculum  was  physiology. 

1  Hinsdale,  Horace  Mann  and  the  Common  School  Revival,  Ch-  L 


7<32  History  of  Education 

This  was  especially  the  case  in  the  New  England  region,  and 
was  due  to  the  advocacy  of  Horace  Mann,  who,  from  1837, 
continued  his  propaganda  in  favor  of  this  subject.  The  first 
English  text-book  on  physiology  of  elementary  character 
appeared  in  1837;  its  introduction  into  elementary  schools 
followed  slowly,  and  in  1850  the  state  legislature  of  Massa- 
chusetts made  compulsory  the  teaching  of  the  subject  in  the 
elementary  schools.  Object  teaching,  and  along  with  this 
the  study  of  simple  phenomena  of  nature,  was  introduced 
through  the  Pestalozzian  movement  (pp.  620-621).  Nature 
study  has  been  a  more  recent  outgrowth  of  this  and  other 
influences. 

INFLUENCE  OF  SCIENCE  ON  EDUCATIONAL  METHOD. 

—  The  detailed  evidence  containing  these  influences  is  sug- 
gested in  the  previous  section  on  science  in  the  curriculum 
and  in  the  chapter  on  the  psychological  tendency.  The  appli- 
cation of  psychological  method  is  the  application  of  science 
to  education.  Yet  one  or  two  general  considerations  need  to 
be  suggested  to  assist  the  student  in  constructing  this  resume. 

Scientific  method  has  been  worked  out  objectively  by  a 
long  line  of  investigators,  from  Copernicus,  Galileo,  and 
Kepler,  through  Newton  to  the  present  time.  Since  the  time 
of  these  early  scientists  it  has  been  applied,  widely  and  thor- 
oughly, to  every  field  of  investigation  and  every  phase  of 
experience.  Formulated  first  on  the  subjective  side  by 
Descartes  and  on  the  objective  side  by  Bacon,  every  investi- 
gator has  but  made  more  evident  its  philosophical  as  well 
as  its  positive  formulation. 

The  earlier  application  of  this  method  to  education  in  the 
Baconian  period  has  been  discussed.  Its  more  general  appli- 
cation, though  in  somewhat  empirical  form  and  in  a  wholly 
tentative  manner  in  the  Pestalozzian  movement,  has  also  been 
mentioned.  The  development  of  the  scientific  method  in  its 
application  to  education  during  recent  times  can  be  traced 


Scientific   Tendency  in  Education  703 

along  two  lines.  The  first  of  these  is  in  the  formulation  of 
specific  methods  of  instruction  more  in  accord  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  psychology  than  are  the  traditional  ones  of  the  past. 
The  second  of  these  is  through  the  improvement  in  form, 
content,  and  arrangement  of  material  presented  in  text- 
books. 

Probably  little  has  been  added  in  general  principles,  or  at 
least  such  traditions  are  slowly  made.  The  great  task,  after 
the  scientific  attitude  has  been  accepted  by  teachers,  is  to 
translate  principles  into  precepts  and  precepts  into  practice. 
The  more  general  professional  training  is  making  such  prog- 
ress possible ;  the  constant  revision  and  improvement  in  text- 
books is  furnishing  the  means.  The  result  is  a  constantly 
improving  standard  of  efficiency  and  thoroughness  in  teach- 
ing. That  with  this  improvement  in  method  there  is  often 
much  that  savors  of  the  chicanery  of  the  mountebank,  or 
more  often  of  the  unbalanced  enthusiasm  of  the  untrained 
practitioner,  is  evidenced  by  the  many  fads  and  fashions  to 
which  the  educational  world  is  subject.  Beneath  it  all  one 
has  but  to  study  the  advance  made  in  the  teaching  of  any  one 
particular  subject  to  be  convinced  that  great  progress  is  be- 
ing made  in  the  application  of  scientific  method  to  education. 
Each  part  of  education  —  elementary,  secondary,  higher  — 
has  its  own  history  in  this  respect,  as,  indeed,  has  each  sub- 
ject. This  advance  has  been  sketched  for  subject-matter.  To 
follow  this  for  any  particular  subject,  by  means  of  text-books 
and  schoolroom  methods,  will  be  a  most  profitable  task  for 
the  student,  but  one  that  cannot  be  undertaken  here. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Development  of  the  Natural  Sciences. 

Beckman,  History  of  Inventions. 

Buckley,  A  Short  History  of  Natural  Science.     (New  York,  1888.) 

Brewster,  Martyrs  of  Science. 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  articles :  Astronomy ',  Botany,  Physics,  etc 


704  History  of  Education 

Smith,  History  of  Science  in   the  Nineteenth    Century.     (New  York, 

1900-1901.) 

Smith,  History  of  Science.    4  vols.     (New  York,  1904.) 
Whewell,  History  of  the  Inductive  Sciences.     (London,  1837.) 

Theory  of  Education. 

Clifford,  Lectures  and  Essays.     (London,  1879.) 
Combe,  Education.     (Edited  by  Jolby.)     (London,  1879.) 
Eliot,  Educational  Reform.     (New  York,  1898.) 
Huxley,  Science  and  Education.     (New  York,  1894.) 
Jevons,  The  Principles  of  Science.     (London,  1877.) 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  Inaugural  Address.     (London,  1867.) 
Pearson,  Grammar  of  Science,  Chs.  I  and  III. 
Spencer,  Education.     (New  York,  1860.) 

Youmans,  Culture  demanded  by  Modern  Life.      Articles  by  Youmans, 
Tyndall,  Huxley,  Whewell,  Spencer,  etc.     (New  York,  1887.) 

Sciences  in  the  Schools. 

Popular  Science  Monthly.    Various  articles  ;  see  index. 

Boone,  History  of  Education  in  the  United  States.     (New  York,  1889.) 

Combe,  Education,  pp.  23-252. 

Dexter,  History  of  Education  in  the  United  States.     (New  York,  1904.) 

Lloyd  and  Bigelow,  The  Teaching  of  Biology .     (New  York,  1904.) 

In  general,  the  literature  on  this  chapter  is  to  be  found  in  periodical 
publications,  to  which  access  may  be  had  through  Poole's  Index. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  INVESTIGATION 

1 .  Give  an  outline  of  the  development  of  any  one  modern  science  and 
trace  its  connection  with  education  :  (a)  To  what  extent  was  it  developed 
through  the  work  of  educational  institutions?     (b)  When  was  the  subject 
introduced  into  school  text-books  (readers,  etc.)  ?     (c)  When  and  in  what 
type  of  institutions  was  it  introduced  as  a  subject  of  study?     (d)  What 
influence,  if  it  can  be  traced,  did  it  exert  on  the  general  character  of  the 
intellectual  life  and  the  general  conception  of  education  ? 

2.  What   were  the  views  held   by  any  one  of  the  prominent  natural 
scientists  that  wrote  upon  the  subject  of  education,  —  Franklin,  Priestly, 
Agassiz,  etc.,  —  and  to  what  extent  were  these  views  determined  by  their 
scientific  ideas? 

3.  To  what  extent  was  the  development  of  the  natural  sciences  an 
outgrowth  of  the  work  of  educational  institutions? 


Scientific   Tendency  in  Education  705 

4.  To  what  extent  can  this  be  traced   in   any  one  institution ;  e.g. 
University  of  Halle,  University  of  Cambridge,  University  of  Pennsylvania? 

5.  Trace  the  introduction  of  scientific  material  into  the  elementary 
schools   through  old  text-books   or  through  the  program  of  studies   of 
schools  in  the  late  eighteenth  or  early  nineteenth  century. 

6.  Trace  the  growth  of  scientific  academies  and  their  influence  upon 
education. 

7.  Through  the  files  of  old  educational  publications  trace  the  develop- 
ment of  the  influence  of  the  natural  sciences  on  school  work  and  on  edu- 
cational thought. 

8.  To  what  extent  is  Spencer's  argument  concerning  the  value  to  be 
derived  from  the  method  of  scientific  study  valid  ? 

9.  Compare   Huxley's   conception   of  culture  with   that   of  Matthew 
Arnold  in  Essays  in  Criticism,  etc. 

10.  What  are  the  arguments  for  the  general  educational  value  of  the 
natural  sciences  from  the  point  of  view  of  subject-matter?  From  the  point 
of  view  of  method? 

u.  What  is  the  educational  value  of  anyone  particular  science,  e.g. 
physics,  chemistry,  botany,  etc.  ? 

12.  Trace  out  in  greater  detail  than  is  given  in  the  text  the  introduction 
of  the  natural  sciences  into  any  particular  grade  of  schools  in  any  one 
country. 

13.  What  was  the  basis  of  the  religious  objection  to  the  teaching  of 
science  in  the  schools,  so  potent  during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century? 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE   SOCIOLOGICAL  TENDENCY   IN    EDUCATION 

GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS.  —  The  sociological  and 
psychological  tendencies  are  not  antagonistic,  nor  are  the  cor- 
responding conceptions  of  education  mutually  exclusive.  The 
terms  indicate  a  difference  in  emphasis  and  a  difference  in 
point  of  view  alone.  The  psychologists  look  upon  education 
as  the  process  of  the  development  of  the  individual ;  they 
approach  the  subject  through  the  study  of  psychical  activi- 
ties ;  they  emphasize  the  importance  of  method  —  method  as 
a  process  of  development  of  the  mind  and  method  as  school- 
room procedure.  The  sociologists  look  upon  education  as 
the  process  of  perpetuating  and  developing  society ;  they 
approach  the  subject  through  a  study  of  social  structure, 
social  activities,  social  needs ;  they  conceive  the  purpose  of 
education  to  be  the  preparation  of  the  individual  for  success- 
ful participation  in  the  economic,  political,  and  social  activities 
of  his  fellows. 

Besides  this  difference  in  point  of  view  and  of  emphasis,  a 
few  other  characteristics  may  be  noted.  The  extraordinary 
interest  in  appropriate  subjects  of  study  for  every  stage  of 
education,  from  kindergarten  to  university,  is  an  outgrowth 
of  the  sociological  influence.  This  interest  raises  the  ques- 
tion of  educational  values.  Consequently,  all  traditional 
studies  have  been  subjected  to  this  test,  with  the  result  that 
some  have  been  rejected  and  that  all  have  been  or  are  being 
reorganized.  There  have  been  in  almost  every  subject  of 
study  many  elisions  and  many  additions.  When  there  was 

706 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          707 

raised  the  question,  What  knowledge  is  of  most  worth  in 
order  that  the  individual  may  take  his  place  in  society  ?  less 
and  less  importance  was  assigned  to  the  purely  linguistic  and 
literary  inheritance,  and  more  and  more  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  phenomena  of  the  natural  environment,  to  the  laws  of 
the  forces  of  nature,  and  to  the  knowledge  of  social  institu- 
tions. Thus  this  tendency  to  minimize  the  old  humanistic 
education  and  to  accentuate  the  natural  and  social  sciences 
accords  with  the  scientific  tendency. 

From  the  view  that  education  is  the  process  of  the  develop- 
ment of  society,  or  the  less  definitely  formulated  view  that 
education  offers  the  best  means  for  social  betterment,  there 
follows  the  corollary  that  all  members  of  society  must  par- 
ticipate in  this  development.  The  growth  of  this  sociological 
conception,  in  its  general  rather  than  in  its  scientific  and 
technical  aspect,  is  coincident  with  the  development  of  uni- 
versal and  free  education.  The  growth  of  public  school 
systems  followed  the  acceptance  of  these  ideas  as  a  necessary 
consequence. 

SOCIOLOGICAL  ASPECT  OF  THE  WRITINGS  OF 
PESTALOZZI,  HERBART,  AND  FROEBEL.  —  While  the 
dominant  emphasis  given  by  these  men  in  their  writings 
was  upon  the  method  of  instruction  and  while  their  imme- 
diate followers  were  active  almost  exclusively  in  the  im- 
provement in  the  process  and  spirit  of  educational  effort, 
nevertheless,  in  their  theory  the  sociological  aspect  is  very 
prominent. 

In  all  of  his  earlier  work,  before  the  days  of  Yverdun  or  at 
least  before  those  at  Burgdorf,  the  great  object  of  search  with 
Pestalozzi  was  a  method  of  improving  the  welfare  of  the 
neglected,  degraded,  or  orphaned  poor.  The  philanthropic 
motive  was  uppermost  in  all  of  these  earlier  experiences. 
Hut  social  wrongs  were  to  be  righted  by  teaching  children  to 
be  industrious.  Through  teaching  them  the  simplest  elo 


708  History  of  Education 

ments  of  knowledge,  and  this  chiefly  in  connection  with  handi 
crafts,  they  were  to  be  started  on  the  road  to  self -development 
and  education.  As  soon  as  Pestalozzi  turned  from  writing 
to  actual  teaching,  his  main  interest  came  to  be,  and  ever 
remained,  in  the  method  of  carrying  out  his  ideas,  which  was 
by  "  the  simplification  of  instruction  and  the  domestic  educa- 
tion of  the  people."  But  in  his  theory,  if  not  stressed  most 
in  his  definitions  of  education,  the  social  aspect  is  very  evi- 
dent. Education  is  ever  much  broader  than  the  school,  and 
education  thus  becomes  a  social  as  well  as  individual  process, 
one  which  is  carried  on  by  a  variety  of  institutions.  Educa- 
tion is  the  process  as  well  as  the  means  of  bettering  society ; 
education  is  ever  to  perform  more  for  the  individual  than 
to  give  him  rudiments  of  learning ;  it  is  to  assist  him  to 
be  something  for  himself  and  to  do  something  for  others. 
It  is  because  of  this  conception  of  education  that  Pestalozzi 
was  always  most  interested  in  the  education  of  the  poor,  the 
orphaned,  the  neglected  ignorant.  It  is  for  the  same  reason 
that  his  methods  of  instruction  received  general  recognition 
and  application  in  connection  with  the  training  of  defectives 
and  delinquents  in  every  sort  of  reform  school  and  asylum. 
And  it  was  only  because  he  realized  that  a  practical  method 
of  attaining  this  end  was  the  great  essential,  that  Pestalozzi 
turned  his  attention  exclusively  to  the  betterment  of  the 
process  of  instruction. 

In  the  case  of  Herbart  the  social  aspect  of  his  influence 
appears  most  clearly  in  two  points :  first,  in  respect  to  aim, 
which  is  found  in  character,  that  is,  in  will  functioning  aright 
in  society ;  and  second,  in  respect  to  subject-matter,  which  is 
to  represent  to  the  child,  in  an  idealized  form,  the  various 
aspects  of  life.  With  Herbart  education  was  to  be  moral  in 
its  aim,  not  as  in  the  old  dogmatic  religious  conception,  nor 
even  as  in  the  philanthropic,  reformatory  views  of  Pestalozzi ; 
education  is  moral  in  the  broader  sociological  sense,  since 
education  has  nothing  else  as  its  aim  but  the  formation  of  the 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          709 

moral  nature.  The  whole  problem  of  education  is  to  make 
instruction  educative  in  this  sense.  Character  is  given  a  much 
broader  analysis  than  formerly  it  had  received,  at  least  in 
educational  thought.  Inner  freedom,  the  finding  of  external 
expression  in  efficiency,  benevolence,  justice,  and  equity, 
represent  in  a  new  form  the  well-being  and  well-doing  of 
Aristotle,  and  unite  the  individual  and  the  social  in  terms  of 
educational  aims.  The  permanent  educational  problem  is  how 
to  realize  formulated  and  accepted  aims,  and  to  this  Herbart 
devoted  his  chief  attention.  With  his  followers,  it  is  this 
emphasis  upon  method  that  received  almost  exclusive  atten- 
tion. It  is  probable  that  the  Herbartian  influence  of  the 
future,  in  our  own  country  at  least,  will  concern  itself  more 
with  the  broader  sociological  implications  of  the  theory  of  the 
master  than  with  this  more  restricted  interpretation.  In 
respect  to  the  subject-matter  of  instruction,  the  Herbartian 
pedagogy  contains  another  important  sociological  bearing,  in 
that  the  curriculum  represents  to  the  child  the  summary  of 
life  in  the  past  rather  than  merely  so  much  material  for  the 
whetting  of  wits.  But  as  this  view  received  further  interpre- 
tation  in  the  culture  epoch  theory,  in  which  the  curriculum 
represents  the  summary  of  past  stages  of  culture  rather  than 
an  idealization  and  amplification  of  one's  own,  its  sociological 
import  is  subordinated  to  its  psychological  significance. 

It  is  with  Froebel  that  the  full  social  significance  of  the 
subject-matter  of  instruction,  as  the  presentation  to  the  child  of 
the  simplified  and  idealized  elements  of  his  own  life's  environ- 
ment, is  fully  grasped  (see  pp.  659-660).  As  an  epitome  of 
life,  the  curriculum  becomes  the  initial  point  of  all  instruction. 
This  conception  gives  education  a  wholly  new  significance,  and 
that  a  social  one.  It  is  the  working  out  of  this  conception 
that  forms  the  chief  concern  of  education  to-day.  While  it 
was  the  psychological  aspect  of  the  problem  that  first  received 
chief  recognition  during  the  present  generation,  it  is  Froebel's 
pedagogical  thought,  as  it  is  more  fully  appreciated,  that  has 


710  History  of  Education 

come  to  have  a  new  significance.  The  intimate  practical 
connection  between  Froebel  and  the  sociological  tendency  is 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  for  ten  years  the  kindergartens 
were  suppressed  because  of  their  supposed  socialistic  bear- 
ing. Though  this  was  partly  due  to  confusion  of  Froebel 
with  a  relative  of  his  who  held  forbidden  views,  yet  it  was 
based  as  well  upon  the  tendencies  of  the  education  given. 
And  it  is  true  to  the  present  day,  that  no  phase  of  school 
work  has  so  closely  approximated  the  idea  of  a  society  in 
microcosm  as  has  the  kindergarten. 

The  fact  that  Kant  in  his  philosophy  of  education  sought 
a  harmonization  of  the  individual  and  social  elements  has 
been  mentioned ;  the  same  can  be  discovered  in  the  works 
of  Fichte,  Rosenkranz,  and  others  of  this  group.  In  fact, 
it  was  the  latter  who  formulated  the  definition,  "  Education 
is  the  preparation  for  life  in  institutions." 

SOCIOLOGICAL  ASPECT  OF  THE  SCIENTIFIC  TEND- 
ENCY.—  In  their  emphasis  on  the  importance  of  the  sub- 
ject-matter and  in  their  opposition  to  the  current  views  of  the 
orthodox  disciplinarian  educationists  concerning  the  supreme 
importance  of  the  process  of  acquisition  of  knowledge,  the 
sociological  and  scientific  tendencies  coincide.  However, 
the  emphasis  upon  the  supreme  importance  of  subject-mat- 
ter is  from  somewhat  different  points  of  view.  The  approach 
of  the  scientists  to  this  position  is  rather  through  the  value  of 
the  natural  sciences  as  they  bear  upon  the  welfare  of  the  in- 
dividual ;  that  of  the  sociologists  is  through  the  importance 
of  both  natural  and  social  sciences  as  they  equip  the  indi- 
vidual for  life  in  institutions  and  thus  secure  the  welfare  of 
society.  It  is  to  be  further  noted  also  that  all  the  prominent 
advocates  of  scientific  education  believe  in  a  more  extended 
educational  use  of  the  social  as  well  as  of  the  natural  sci- 
ences. However  the  scientists  and  sociologists  may  differ  in 
the  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  curriculum,  their  point  of 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          711 

view  is  the  same;  namely,  "What  knowledge  is  of  most 
worth  ?  "  If,  like  Rousseau's  "  What  is  that  to  me  ? "  the 
formulation  of  this  question  by  the  scientists  is  in  individ- 
ualistic terms,  it  is  because  it  is  more  immediately  connected 
in  time  and  sympathy  with  this  individualism  of  the  eigh- 
teenth and  nineteenth  centuries  than  are  the  views  of  the 
sociological  educators. 

In  the  case  of  Herbert  Spencer,  so  intimate  is  this  relation 
between  the  two  tendencies  in  thought,  that  he  may  with  jus- 
tification be  taken  as  a  representative  of  the  sociological  tend- 
ency. So  intimate,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  relation  between 
Spencer  and  the  "  naturalistic  tendency  "  in  education,  of  which 
he  may  be  taken  as  the  culmination,  that  the  individualistic 
interpretation  of  the  aims  is  apt  to  be  ever  uppermost.  It  is 
in  his  views  concerning  the  curriculum  and  especially  the  social 
sciences,  as  well  as  in  those  concerning  the  dissemination  of 
this  new  education  among  the  masses  instead  of  among  the 
limited  favored  classes,  that  he  reveals  his  sociological  lean- 
ing. In  respect  to  the  first  of  these  points,  Spencer's  dis- 
cussions relative  to  the  true  nature  of  history  have  exerted 
much  influence  in  replacing  the  old  dynastic  and  martial  con- 
ception of  history  with  the  more  modern,  economic,  and  social 
conception. 

For  the  economic  and  utilitarian  aspects  of  the  study  of  the 
sciences,  the  sociological  tendency  has  shown  strong  affinity ; 
for  professional,  technical,  and  commercial  institutions  have 
grown  up  quite  as  much  in  answer  to  sociological  as  to  scien- 
tific demands. 

EDUCATIONAL  IDEAS  OF  STATESMEN  AND  PUBLI- 
CISTS.—  The  social  and  political  importance  of  education  as 
well  as  the  responsibility  of  the  state  for  education  was  first 
recognized  by  the  German  peoples.  The  beginnings  of  state 
systems  of  education  during  the  sixteenth  century  have  been 
noted  (Ch.  VIII).  However,  the  religious  motive  and  concep- 


712  History  of  Education 

tion  of  education  was  yet  dominant  during  this  early  period.  It 
was  not  until  the  eighteenth  century  that  the  politico-economic, 
that  is,  the  social,  conception  found  full  expression.  The  first 
monarchs  to  seize  the  idea  that  national  prosperity  and  stabil- 
ity depended  at  bottom  upon  general  education  were  Freder- 
ick the  Great  of  Prussia  (r.  1740-1786)  and  Maria  Theresa 
of  Austria  (r.  1740-1780).  In  his  famous  school  laws  of  1763 
the  former  recognized  that  it  was  the  duty  of  officials  to  "  strive 
for  the  true  welfare  of  our  country  and  of  all  classes  of  people  " 
by  "  having  a  good  foundation  laid  in  the  schools  for  a  rational 
and  Christian  education  of  the  young  for  the  fear  of  God  and 
other  useful  ends."  While  the  early  French  republicans  came 
to  hold  a  similar  conception  of  governmental  responsibility  for 
education  and  while  they  outlined  a  system,  it  remained  for 
later  generations  actually  to  construct  it. 

In  our  own  country,  though  education  was  highly  appre- 
ciated in  the  colonial  days  and  though  it  found  a  notable  ex- 
ponent in  Franklin,  it  was  either  the  religious  conception,  as 
with  the  early  colonists,  or  the  individualistic  and  utilitarian, 
as  with  Franklin's  generation,  that  prevailed.  With  our  early 
national  leaders,  a  new  conception  developed. 

In  his  message  to  Congress  in  1790,  Washington  wrote: 
"  Knowledge  is  in  every  country  the  surest  basis  of  public 
happiness.  In  one  in  which  the  measures  of  government 
receive  their  impression  so  immediately  as  in  ours,  from 
the  sense  of  the  community,  it  is  proportionally  essential." 
Education,  as  the  dissemination  of  knowledge,  was  thus  the 
conception  which  Washington  held.  This  undoubtedly  is  the 
approach  to  the  subject  most  frequently  made  from  the  socio- 
logical point  of  view.  Consequently  the  importance  of  educa- 
tion lay  in  the  effect  which  the  intelligence  of  the  people 
would  have  upon  legislation.  The  chief  concern  of  Wash- 
ington lay  then  in  the  establishment  of  educational  institutions 
that  would  serve  as  instruments  of  general  enlightenment. 
In  the  same  message  he  continues :  "  Whether  this  will  be 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          713 

best  promoted  by  affording  aid  to  seminaries  of  learning  al- 
ready established,  by  the  institution  of  a  national  university, 
or  by  any  other  expedients,  will  be  well  worthy  a  place  in  the 
deliberations  of  the  Legislature."  Later,  he  recommends  the 
establishment  of  a  national  university  and  of  a  "  national  cen- 
tral agency  charged  with  collecting  and  diffusing  information 
and  enabled  by  premiums  and  small  pecuniary  aids  to  en- 
courage and  assist  a  spirit  of  discovery  and  improvement." 
Thus  he  foreshadowed  the  work  of  the  Bureau  of  Education, 
The  Smithsonian  Institute,  The  Carnegie  Institution,  and  the 
Department  of  Agriculture ;  the  establishment  of  a  national 
university  is  yet  unrealized. 

Of  all  our  early  statesmen,  Thomas  Jefferson  possessed  the 
clearest  grasp  of  the  national  significance  of  education  and 
did  most  to  promote  such  activities.  The  principle  funda- 
mental to  this  view  we  are  here  considering  was  announced 
in  a  letter  to  Washington  in  1786.  "It  is  an  axiom  in  my 
mind  that  our  liberty  can  never  be  safe  but  in  the  hands  of 
the  people  themselves,  and  that,  too,  of  the  people  with  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  instruction.  This  is  the  business  of  the  state 
to  effect  and  on  a  general  plan."  Education  as  the  safeguard 
of  democracy  is  the  general  principle ;  the  fundamental  re- 
sponsibility of  the  state  for  the  education  of  the  people  is  the 
working  basis  that  comes  to  be  accepted  in  the  course  of  the 
following  half  century.  How  the  tremendous  task  that  this 
idea  presented  in  the  days  of  Jefferson  could  be  accomplished 
could  not  then  be  seen.  The  solution  awaited  the  gradual 
acceptance  of  this  principle  by  the  people  and  the  growing 
ability  and  willingness  to  tax  themselves  generously  for  this 
end.  With  Jefferson  this  idea  was  bound  up  with  the  further 
one  of  local  self-government.  In  other  words,  schools  sup- 
ported by  local  taxation,  and  controlled  by  the  local  commu- 
nky  as  in  New  England,  offered  the  solution  of  the  new 
problem  of  democracy  on  a  large  scale.  Late  in  life  he 
wrote :  "  There  are  two  subjects,  indeed,  which  I  claim  a 


714  History  of  Education 

right  to  further  as  long  as  I  breathe,  the  public  education 
and  the  subdivision  of  counties  into  wards.  I  consider  the 
continuance  of  republican  government  as  absolutely  hanging 
on  these  two  hooks." 

James  Madison  (1751-1836),  the  third  President,  was,  next 
to  Jefferson,  the  most  active  of  our  earlier  statesmen  in  edu- 
cational work.  "  A  popular  government  without  popular  in- 
formation or  the  means  of  acquiring  it,  is  but  a  prologue  to  a 
farce  or  a  tragedy,  or  perhaps  both,"  he  wrote.  Consequently 
he  held  that  "the  best  service  that  can  be  rendered  to  a 
country,  next  to  giving  it  liberty,  is  in  diffusing  the  mental 
improvement  equally  essential  to  the  preservation  and  enjoy- 
ment of  that  blessing." 

With  these  two  statesmen  such  views  were  not  mere 
opinions,  for  they  devoted  quite  as  much  attention  to  educa- 
tional activities  and  interests  as  to  those  of  a  political  charac- 
ter. At  the  very  beginning  of  this  greatest  of  experiments 
in  popular  government,  they  realized  most  clearly  that  the 
success  of  it  as  well  as  the  economic  prosperity  and  social 
progress  of  the  people  depended  upon  their  intelligence  as 
that  was  secured  and  guaranteed  by  a  most  general  scheme 
of  education.  No  such  system  as  would  be  adequate  to  the 
needs  could  be  furnished  by  any  other  means  than  the  state. 
As  might  be  expected,  their  views  were  a  half  century  or 
more  in  advance  of  the  actual  realization  of  these  ideals. 

EDUCATION  AS  A  PREPARATION  FOR  CITIZENSHIP.— 

The  conception  of  education  common  to  all  of  these  statesmen 
and  public  leaders  is  that  education  is  primarily  a  preparation 
for  citizenship.  It  was  necessary  for  several  generations  to 
intervene  after  the  Rousseau  influence,  to  bring  about  a  gen- 
eral realization  that  this  social  conception  was  a  very  differ- 
ent one  from  that  of  the  individuality-repressing  education 
which  Rousseau  sought  to  overthrow.  In  fact,  in  our  own 
country,  it  was  near  or  after  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          715 

tury  before  this  social  conception  of  education  replaced  with 
the  masses  of  the  people  the  prevailing  individualistic  one. 
This  individualism,  however,  was  not  the  individualism  of 
Rousseau  and  of  the  early  psychologists,  founded  on  the 
conception  of  education  derived  from  a  consideration  of  the 
child's  mind ;  it  was  an  individualism  based  upon  economic, 
political,  and  social  considerations.  The  prevailing  view 
among  those  giving  no  technical  consideration  to  the  problem 
was  that  the  function  of  democratic  government  was  to  give  to 
every  individual  freedom  of  opportunity,  —  a  free  field  and 
no  favors,  —  and  that  education  was  to  equip  the  individual 
in  the  best  and  briefest  way  for  this  harsh  competitive 
struggle.  With  these  premises  only  the  most  utilitarian  view 
of  education  could  prevail.  In  contrast  with  this,  the  sociolog- 
ical conception  of  education  has  received  common  acceptance 
among  the  people  through  the  idea  that  education  is  a  prepa- 
ration for  citizenship.  In  the  old  view,  the  function  of  educa- 
tion was  to  develop  the  ability,  improve  the  habits,  form  the 
character  of  the  individual,  so  that  he  might  prosper  in  his 
life's  activities  and  conform  to  certain  social  standards  of  con- 
duct. The  idea  emphasized  in  the  citizenship  conception  is 
that  individual  and  social  welfare,  happiness,  and  righteousness 
depend  more  largely  than  ever  before  recognized  upon  the 
relations  existing  between  persons  and  classes  in  institutional 
life.  Therefore  education  has  a  new  work,  that  of  clarifying 
the  basal  principles  of  this  relationship  and  of  giving  in- 
formation concerning  the  very  complex  relations  in  society, 
and  a  new  aim,  found  in  social  motive.  The  new  work  de- 
mands a  readjustment  of  emphasis  upon  subjects  of  instruc- 
tion, with  greater  attention  to  historic,  economic,  and  literary 
subjects.  The  new  aim  requires  a  greater  attention  to  the 
formation  of  character,  social  habits,  patriotic  and  altruistic 
motives.  The  first  adds  new  emphasis  to  the  importance  of 
the  knowledge  side  of  education ;  the  second,  to  the  moral 
aim.  Education  thus  becomes,  though  indirectly,  the  force 


716  History  of  Education 

modifying  social  institutions  by  bringing  about  a  better  adjust 
ment  of  individuals  to  one  another.  Progress  is  the  character- 
istic of  modern  life ;  ability  to  adjust  one's  self  quickly  and 
properly  to  new  social  conditions  is  the  chief  demand  upon 
education.  This  necessitates  a  knowledge  of  these  changing 
conditions  and  an  ability  and  willingness  to  bring  about  the 
readjustment.  These  are  usually  summed  up  under  the  term 
"good  citizenship."  The  popular  literature,  revealing  this 
general  sociological  conception  of  education,  will  be  found 
for  the  most  part  devoted  to  the  exposition  of  education  as 
a  general  preparation  for  citizenship  or  for  life  in  institu- 
tions ;  and  the  popular  conception  but  expresses  in  concrete 
form  that  which  is  given  more  technical  expression  in  scien- 
tific literature. 

PLACE  OF  EDUCATION  IN  SOCIOLOGICAL  THEORY.  — 

The  subject  of  education  occupies  an  important  place  in  the 
sociological  literature  produced  in  the  last  few  generations. 
Since  the  time  of  August  Comte,  who  founded  the  science  of 
sociology  and  coined  the  term,  various  interpretations  of 
the  place  of  education  in  social  economy  have  been  made.  It 
will  be  impossible  in  a  brief  space  to  notice  many  of  these ; 
a  statement  of  four  of  the  most  important  must  suffice. 
Comte  himself  gave  only  incidental  attention  to  education  in 
his  writings.  Though  his  great  interest  was  in  the  dynamic 
aspect  of  social  life  and  his  chief  quest  for  a  philosophy  or 
explanation  of  social  progress,  he  did  not  grasp  the  importance 
of  education  in  this  process.  It  remained  for  the  leading 
exponent  of  his  ideas  in  this  country,  Professor  Lester  F.  Ward, 
to  perform  this  service.  In  his  Dynamic  Sociology,  —  which, 
though  a  much-neglected  work,  is,  in  fact,  the  most  elaborate 
treatise  on  education  published  by  an  American,  —  this  exposi- 
tion is  given.  The  substance  of  the  theory  is  as  follows  :  — 

The  fundamental  social  theses  are  derived  from  the  psy- 
chology of  the  individual ;  namely,  that  the  feelings  constitute 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          717 

the  basal  factor  in  life,  that  the  tendency  to  action  or  the 
motor  responsiveness  to  stimuli  is  the  fundamental  character 
istic,  that  from  the  evolutionary  point  of  view  feeling  has  been 
developed  as  a  means  of  preserving  life,  and  that  the  intellect 
was  similarly  developed  as  a  means  for  securing  ends  that 
the  will  unguided  could  not  secure.  The  emotional-volitional 
aspect  of  mind  thus  becomes  primary;  the  intellect  is  de- 
veloped as  a  guide  to  action.  From  this  position,  accept- 
able enough  to  modern  psychological  thought,  sociological 
doctrines  of  a  radical  nature  are  developed.  Feeling  fur- 
nishes the  motive  power,  intellect  the  guiding  power,  to  all 
action,  first  of  the  individual,  then  of  society.  Conduct  indeed 
depends  upon  desires,  but  desires  depend  upon  ideas,  that  is, 
opinion  and  feeling,  and  these  in  turn  depend  upon  education. 
Consequently  it  is  the  highest  duty  of  society  to  furnish  to 
every  individual  member  an  adequate  education.  This  educa- 
tion, however,  should  not  be  that  furnished  by  individuals  or 
societies  interested  in  giving  to  the  child  educated  a  particular 
set  of  beliefs.  "  It  should  consist  exclusively  in  furnishing 
the  largest  possible  amount  of  the  most  important  knowledge, 
letting  the  beliefs  take  care  of  themselves."  Thus  at  one 
point  the  views  of  Froebel  are  approached,  in  another  those 
of  Herbart,  and  in  this  last,  the  emphasis  upon  the  importance 
of  knowledge,  the  views  of  the  natural  scientists,  notably 
those  of  Spencer. 

Further,  according  to  this  view,  progress  depends  upon 
intelligence.  Intelligence  is  the  product  of  two  factors,  the 
degree  of  intellectual  power  and  the  product  of  its  action ;  in 
other  words,  upon  intellect  and  knowledge.  The  degree  of 
intelligence  can  be  improved  only  indirectly,  through  observ- 
ance of  the  laws  of  heredity  and  the  influence  of  environment 
or  through  the  process  of  acquiring  knowledge.  The  extent 
of  knowledge  can  be  increased  directly ;  hence  from  both 
points  of  view  the  function  of  education  is  to  increase  knowl- 
edge. The  indirect  means  for  the  increase  of  intellectual 
power,  that  is,  selection  and  rational  change  of  environment, 
have  been  at  work  for  generations,  with  the  result  that  the 
amount  of  useful  knowledge  possessed  by  the  average  mind 
is  far  below  its  intellectual  capacity.  Thus  the  degree  of 
intelligence  is  correspondingly  below  what  it  might  be,  and 
the  great  educational  need,  from  the  social  point  of  view,  is 


718  History  of  Education 

the  more  thorough  dissemination  of  the  great  body  of  valu 
able  knowledge  already  extant.  So  far  as  there  is  necessity 
for  the  origination  of  knowledge,  individual  interest  will  care 
for  that,  and  it  is  easier  and  more  rapid  than  any  increase  of 
intellectual  power  can  be. 

Thus  education  becomes  a  most  important  social  function 
It  should  be  controlled  by  the  state  and  not  by  private  parties. 
It  should  concern  itself  chiefly  with  the  dissemination  of 
knowledge,  for  upon  this  depends  the  general  intelligence, 
and  upon  general  intelligence,  in  turn,  depends  social  progress 
and  happiness.  But  the  final  relationship  of  education  to 
society  is  not  yet  clearly  revealed.  The  highest  social  process 
is  that  of  "  sociocracy,"  —  the  rational  control  and  direction 
of  society  by  itself  to  reach  certain  determined  and  valuable 
ends.  In  other  words,  the  highest  form  of  social  control  and 
direction  is  "  politics,"  though  politics  in  a  sense  as  yet  hardly 
realized.  Education,  as  the  dissemination  of  knowledge 
which  will  serve  as  a  basis  for  this  highly  rationalized  social 
process,  —  that  through  which  all  others  are  obtained,  —  thus 
becomes  the  most  immediate  means  to  that  end.  This  scien- 
tific and  abstract  thought  comes  to  essentially  the  same 
position  formulated  by  the  common  thought  in  terms  of 
"  preparation  for  citizenship."  In  formal  terms  education  is 
defined  "  as  a  system  for  extending  to  all  members  of  society 
such  of  the  extant  knowledge  of  the  world  as  may  be  deemed 
most  important." 

A  second  of  these  general  sociological  views  considers 
education  as  a  means  of  social  control.  This  is  but  another 
interpretation  from  a  different  point  of  view  of  Comte's 
philosophy.  As  society  in  the  past  has  relied  chiefly  upon 
the  government  with  its  direct  means  of  control  through 
force,  and  the  Church  with  its  indirect  means  of  control 
through  beliefs,  ideas,  ceremonies,  rewards,  and  punishments 
of  immaterial  character,  so  now  it  comes  to  depend  more  and 
more  upon  the  indirect  means  of  control  exercised  upon  the 
coming  generation  through  the  school.  This  indirect  means 
is  far  more  economical  than  the  direct  means,  since  it  depends 
so  largely  upon  mere  suggestion  exercised  by  teachers  rather 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          719 

than  upon  a  force  which  rouses  opposition.  It  is  more  eco- 
nomical than  when  exercised  wholly  by  the  Church,  in  that  it 
is  largely  intellectual  and  rational,  and  thus,  through  the  self- 
interest  and  rational  enlightenment  of  the  individual,  prepares 
directly  for  activities  valuable  from  the  general  social  point  of 
view. 

Not  but  what  the  moral  motives  should  be  just  as  emphat- 
ically emphasized;  they  should  be  rather  more  emphasized 
than  ever,  but  they  should  be  moral  motives  of  a  different 
character.  As  education  in  the  hands  of  the  parent  sought 
to  control  the  child  for  the  sake  of  his  practical  success  in 
life ;  and  the  education  of  the  Church  to  control  him  for  the 
sake  of  the  organization  and  for  his  own  eternal  salvation ; 
so  the  education  of  the  state  seeks  to  control  the  child  for  the 
sake  of  the  welfare  of  society  which  includes  the  individual 
and  his  fellows  as  well.  Thus  as  a  form  of  control,  education 
is  merely  an  instrument  of  society  similar  to  law,  to  police 
force,  to  religion  and  the  Church,  to  organized  public  opinion, 
and  to  various  institutional  customs  and  traditions.  But  as 
such  it  operates  in  a  peculiar  way,  not  directly  by  force,  but 
indirectly  through  the  suggestive  power  of  ideas  and  through 
the  impartation  of  knowledge;  not  immediately  upon  the 
adult,  but  through  the  medium  of  a  coming  generation. 

A  third  estimate  of  the  function  of  education  from  the 
sociological  point  of  view  is  a  much  more  fundamental  one. 
Suggested  in  this  meaning  by  social  philosophers  from  the 
time  of  the  Greeks,  it  was  first  given  modern  statement  by 
Francis  Bacon.  He  emphasized  the  importance  of  the  study 
of  tradition, — the  transmission  from  one  generation  to  the 
next  of  the  substance  of  the  learning  and  culture  of  the  past. 
From  this  point  of  view  education,  in  modern  sociological 
theory,  becomes  the  "effort  to  preserve  the  continuity  and 
to  secure  the  growth  of  common  tradition." J  Since  the 

1  Vincent,  The  Social  Mind  and  Education,  p.  91.  Chapter  IV  of  this  work  gives 
the  brief  presentation  of  this  entire  theory,  as  summarized  in  the  paragraph  above. 


720  History  of  Education 

"  social  mind "  or  this  common  tradition  or  summary  of 
human  experience  exists  only  in  the  mind  of  individuals, 
such  continuity  can  be  preserved  and  development  secured 
only  "  by  preparing  the  young  gradually  to  appropriate  the 
collective  tradition  in  general  and  by  training  a  few  minds  to 
receive  and  elaborate  its  various  highly  specialized  divisions." 
Without  this  inheritance  of  racial  experience  by  participation 
in  social  institutions,  the  individual  becomes  an  abstraction. 
There  is  no  social  mind,  it  is  true,  aside  from  the  individual 
minds  which  collectively  constitute  it ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  can  be  no  individual  mind  save  as  it  receives  its  content 
from  this  social  one.  Thus  the  negative  of  Rousseau's  idea 
of  a  "natural"  education  is  reached.  This,  however,  is  not 
a  return  to  the  view  against  which  Rousseau  revolted;  but,  by 
a  completion  of  the  circle  of  thought,  it  is  a  compromise  of  the 
two  extreme  views  in  a  conception  which  rejects  both  the 
unchecked  individualism  of  the  one  and  the  unlimited  domi- 
nance of  authority  of  the  other.  The  individual  is  educated, 
or  he  develops,  by  incorporating  within  his  own  experience 
the  summarized  achievements  of  the  race ;  social  stability  is 
secured  by  this  same  process  and  social  progress  through 
the  modification  and  slight  increment  which  the  individual 
may  furnish  to  tradition.  Thus  it  is  not  to  a  fixed,  but  to 
a  constantly  changing  environment  that  the  individual  is 
adjusted.  This  is  the  fundamental  characteristic  of  modern 
education.  For  it  is  because  the  thought  and  institutional  as 
well  as  the  natural  environment  is  constantly  changing  that 
the  individual,  in  being  adjusted  to  it  as  perfectly  as  the  adult 
generation  can  secure,  must  preserve  and  develop  his  own 
individuality.  It  is  the  power  of  adjustment  to  a  changing 
environment,  not  the  fixed  adjustment  in  itself,  that  modern 
education  seeks  to  secure  for  the  individual  as  its  highest 
product. 

Thus  is  suggested   the  fourth  and   highest  aspect  of  the 
sociological  interpretation  of  education.     Education  becomes 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          721 

the  most  advanced  phase  of  evolutionary  process,  or  at  least 
its  most  advanced  method.  The  most  general  aspect  of  the 
theory  of  evolution  is  that  vast  uninterrupted  and  eternal 
forces  of  development  obtain  throughout  all  nature,  and  that 
all  phenomena,  physical  and  mental,  are  subject  to  law.  In 
the  more  specific  sense  organic  evolution  is  that  adaptation 
of  organic  life  to  its  environment  which  is  secured  for  the 
most  part  through  the  process  of  natural  selection.  Human 
evolution  is  such  self-adaptation  of  the  human  race  to  its 
environment  as  results  in  development.  With  this  stage  of 
evolution  the  institutional  aspect  of  environment  is  most 
important  and  social  selection  of  greater  functional  signifi- 
cance than  natural.  However,  so  far  as  the  race  as  a  whole 
is  concerned,  such  development  has  been  largely  unconscious. 
That  is,  since  the  social  consciousness  rather  seeks  to  prevent 
change,  social  progress  has  resulted  for  the  most  part  through 
the  conscious  effort  of  the  individual  to  secure  for  himself 
some  advantage  which  is  not  permitted  or,  at  least,  not  con- 
sciously given  by  society.  The  highest  form  of  social  selec- 
tion is  attained  when  society  becomes  conscious  of  the  aim, — 
a  given  social  status,  —  and  of  the  process  through  which  the 
desired  results  are  to  be  secured.  Since  the  group  has  now 
conceived  definite  ends  and  the  definite  method  of  procedure 
through  which  it  shapes  the  character  of  its  constituent 
members  and  thus  affects  its  own  well-being,  the  process  is 
a  self-conscious  one  on  the  part  of  the  group  as  well  as  on 
the  part  of  individuals.  Though  of  chiefly  a  negative  char- 
acter, legislation  in  general  is  such  a  method.  The  great 
positive  method  developed  by  modern  society  for  effecting 
these  purposes  is  public  education.  Education  thus  becomes 
for  the  social  world  what  natural  selection  is  for  the  sub- 
human world, — the  chief  factor  in  the  process  of  evolution.1 

1  For  further   development  of  this  thesis  see  in  bibliography,  under  Ward 
Mackenzie,  Vincent,  Howerth,  and  Davidson 


722  History  of  Education 

PHILANTHROPIC-RELIGIOUS  MOVEMENTS  FOR  EDU- 
CATION. —  The  growth  of  the  systems  of  public  schools,  now 
supported  by  all  advanced  nations,  has  been  along  two  lines 
of  development,  or  rather  through  two  successive  stages. 
The  first  of  these  was  the  stage  in  which  schools  were  sup- 
plied chiefly  by  private  voluntary  enterprise,  from  motives  of 
religious  and  philanthropic  character.  While  leaving  the 
management  in  private  or  in  quasi-public  control,  the  state 
yet  came  to  contribute  to  these  very  generally.  The  second 
of  these  stages  is  that  in  which  the  political  and  economic 
bearing  of  education  receives  general  recognition  and  states 
accept  the  responsibility  for  general  education  of  all  of  the 
people  as  one  of  the  functions  of  government.  The  impor- 
tance of  this  philanthropic  stage  varied  with  different  coun- 
tries. The  more  prominent  of  these  philanthropic-religious 
school  movements,  as  they  entered  as  constituent  elements  into 
the  formation  of  our  own  public  school  system,  deserve  notice. 

Philanthropic-Educational  Movement  originating  among  the 
German  Peoples.  —  Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the 
various  philanthropic  institutions  founded  by  Francke  at 
Halle,  beginning  with  1694,  that  developed  into  training 
schools  for  teachers,  educational  institutions  of  a  practical 
character  for  orphans,  and  finally  into  the  real-schools  of  the 
German  states.  The  philanthropic  movement  under  Basedow 
which,  beginning  with  private  institutions,  led  through  the 
training  of  teachers  and  the  production  of  a  voluminous  liter- 
ature to  the  introduction  of  a  study  of  natural  phenomena,  of 
more  agreeable  methods,  and  of  a  new  and  better  spirit  into 
the  schoolroom,  has  also  been  noticed.  Similarly  the  Pesta- 
lozzian  movement  had  its  philanthropic  aspect.  But  with  the 
establishment  of  the  school  at  Yverdun,  the  chief  attention  of 
Pestalozzi,  under  the  influence  of  his  assistants,  was  directed 
toward  the  improvement  of  methods.  The  philanthropic 
aspect  of  the  work  was  carried  on  by  Emanuel  von  Fallen- 
berg  (1771-1844). 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          723 

The  Fellenberg  Movement.  —  At  Hofwyl,  near  Burgdorf, 
Fellenberg  conducted  most  successfully,  from  1806  to  1844,  a 
school  that  was  pronounced  by  so  competent  an  authority 
as  Dr.  Barnard  to  have  been  the  most  influential  school  that 
ever  existed.  The  pedagogical  principles  underlying  the 
work  of  the  school  were  similar  to  those  of  Pestalozzi,  with 
whom  Fellenberg  had  been  previously  associated  in  a  school 
experiment.  The  sociological  purpose  of  the  Hofwyl  school 
was  twofold :  first,  to  educate  the  youth  of  the  peasant  class 
in  agricultural  and  technical  pursuits,  and  in  connection  with 
these  industries  to  give  them  the  elements  of  an  intellectual 
education ;  second,  to  bring  the  upper  class  into  closer  sym- 
pathy and  understanding  with  the  peasant  class  by  educating 
them  together.  Therefore,  two  schools  were  established  on 
an  estate  of  some  six  hundred  acres ;  the  literary  institute, 
which  gave  the  ordinary  classical  education,  and  the  practical 
institute,  which  gave  the  education  of  the  peasant  boys  for 
more  intelligent  farmwork.  Both  groups  of  boys  had  school 
gardens,  both  were  expected  to  work  on  the  farm,  one  for 
training  in  future  management,  the  other  for  future  service. 
There  was  an  agricultural  school  for  scientific  instruction,  a 
printing  press  where  the  literature  and  music  of  the  school 
were  printed  by  the  boys  of  the  school,  workshops  where  they 
made  their  clothing  and  agricultural  and  scientific  instruments, 
and  other  similar  institutions.  In  time  there  were  established 
a  school  for  girls  and  a  normal  school  for  teachers,  where  for 
a  time  all  of  the  teachers  of  the  adjacent  city  of  Berne  were 
trained.  In  almost  every  respect  the  schools  seemed  to  be  a 
parallel  of  those  at  Hampton,  Tuskegee,  and  other  places  that 
are  attempting  a  similar  solution  of  social  problems  in  the 
present. 

From  1825  to  1840  scores  of  these  "manual  labor  insti- 
tutes "  were  established  all  over  the  United  States.  All,  or 
very  nearly  all,  the  institutions  of  academic  or  collegiate  rank 
that  were  established  within  these  time  limits,  were  founded 


724  History  of  Education 

upon  this  basis.  Many  of  these,  such  as  Oberlin,  soon  devel- 
oped into  colleges.  The  majority  of  them  were  fostered  by 
some  religious  denomination.  While  in  these  institutions 
philanthropic  and  religious  motives  were  prominent,  the  peda- 
gogical principles  of  Fellenberg  were  minimized.  In  the 
American  literature  that  grew  out  of  this  movement  but  two 
motives  were  emphasized:  one,  the  opportunity  afforded  by 
these  institutions  for  a  higher  education  at  a  lessened  expense; 
second,  the  better  health  and  consequently  more  active  intel- 
lectual life  produced  by  the  course  of  life  followed.  With  the 
improvement  of  the  economic  conditions  of  the  country  and 
the  development  of  more  of  the  formalities  of  social  life,  to- 
ward the  middle  of  the  century,  the  manual  labor  feature  was 
dropped  from  most  of  these  institutions.  This  feature  had 
served  one  purpose,  however,  —  that  of  making  these  insti- 
tutions possible.  The  sociological  aspect  of  the  Pestalozzian 
movement  that  related  to  the  development  of  educational  in- 
stitutions for  the  deaf,  dumb,  blind,  maimed,  and  orphans,  and 
of  educational-reformatory  institutions  for  juvenile  offenders 
and  first  offenders,  can  only  be  mentioned. 

The  Monitorial  Systems  of  Bell  and  Lancaster.  —  In  1 797 
Dr.  Andrew  Bell  introduced  into  England  a  system  which 
he  had  employed  in  an  orphan  asylum,  that  of  using  the 
older  boys  for  the  instruction  of  the  younger.  By  him,  and 
especially  by  Joseph  Lancaster  (1778-1838),  the  system  was 
developed  until  it  became  for  England  a  somewhat  inade- 
quate substitute  for  a  national  system  of  schools.  Through 
the  use  of  a  few  conduct  monitors  and  a  sufficient  number  of 
teaching  monitors  drawn  from  the  more  advanced  students, 
and  through  a  system  of  organization  and  of  method,  it  was 
possible  for  one  teacher  to  direct  a  large  number  of  pupils. 
With  Lancaster  the  ideal,  which  he  himself  realized  before 
he  was  twenty  years  of  age,  was  for  one  teacher  to  control 
a  school  of  one  thousand  boys.  Thus  in  the  absence  of  any 
willingness  on  the  part  of  the  people  adequately  to  support 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          725 

schools,  with  the  government  opposed  on  principle  to  con- 
tributing for  such  purposes,  and  with  the  religious  bodies 
wholly  unable  to  cope  with  the  needs  of  the  times,  the  moni- 
torial system  made  possible  some  general  attention  to  public 
education.  The  Bell  system  found  little  or  no  footing  in 
America,  since  it  was  connected  wholly  with  the  Church  of 
England  schools.  The  great  service  which  the  Lancasterian 
system  rendered  in  our  own  country  was  in  accustoming  the 
people  to  schools  for  the  masses  of  the  people,  to  contributing 


A  LANCASTERIAN  MONITORIAL  SCHOOL,  WITH  RECITATION  SEMICIRCLES  AND 
LESSON  BOARDS  ARRANGED  AROUND  THE  ROOM. 

to  their  support  as  individuals,  and  in  gradually  educating  the 
people  to  look  upon  education  as  a  function  of  the  state.  In 
addition  to  this  it  introduced  a  better  system  of  grading,  since 
all  Lancasterian  schools  were  rigidly  graded  on  the  basis  of 
arithmetic  work,  and  also  on  the  basis  of  spelling  and  reading. 
Hence  it  was  possible  to  promote  in  the  one  subject  without  in 
the  other.  Moreover,  it  brought  in  a  better  arrangement  and 
classification  of  material  and  a  better  organization  and  disci- 
pline of  the  school.  The  great  defects  of  this  system  were 
that  the  work  was  most  formal ;  that  most  of  the  instruction 
was  extremely  superficial ;  that  the  discipline  was  rigid  and 


726  History  of  Education 

mechanical ;  and  that  the  information  gained  was  the  result 
of  formal  memory  work.  There  was  absolutely  no  concep- 
tion of  the  psychological  aspect  of  the  work  and  no  intima- 
tion whatever  of  the  newer,  broader,  and  truer  conception  of 
education  that  was  developing  on  the  continent. 

In  1805  the  Lancasterian  method  was  introduced  into  New 
York  City.  Within  a  few  years  almost  every  city  from  Boston 
to  Charleston,  in  the  South,  and  Cincinnati,  in  the  West,  had 
its  monitorial  or  Lancasterian  schools.  Lancaster  himself 
came  to  this  country  and  assisted  in  the  New  York,  Brook- 
lyn, and  Philadelphia  schools.  In  the  third  decade  of  the 
century,  the  system  was  introduced  in  New  York  and  Boston 
into  a  new  type  of  schools,  the  newly  founded  high  schools. 
For  this  and  the  two  following  decades  the  system  was  widely 
popular  in  the  many  academies  throughout  the  country.  As 
in  the  case  of  the  Fellenberg  system,  with  which  it  was  often 
combined,  the  system  disappeared  in  consequence  of  the 
arousing  of  public  opinion  on  the  subject  of  education,  with 
the  growing  material  prosperity  of  the  people  and  their  will- 
ingness to  contribute  more  liberally  to  the  cause  of  education. 

The  Infant  School  Movement  was  of  similar  import.  Origi- 
nating with  a  French  country  curt  in  1769,  these  schools 
were  soon  introduced  into  Paris  and  became  the  progenitors 
of  the  maternal  schools,  so  common  in  all  French  cities  at 
present.  In  England  the  infant  schools  originated  inde- 
pendently with  Robert  Owen  about  1799  at  New  Lanark, 
Scotland,  as  a  means  of  checking  the  evil  effect  of  the  factory 
system  on  children.  The  factories  of  England  at  that  period 
employed  a  large  number  of  children  that  were  bound  out  to 
them  by  the  poor  commissioners,  at  five,  six,  and  seven  years 
of  age  for  a  period  of  nine  years.  As  these  children  were 
employed  from  eleven  to  thirteen  hours  a  day  in  the  factory, 
and  at  the  end  of  their  apprenticeship  were  turned  free  into 
the  ignorant  mass  of  the  city  population,  their  educational 
condition  can  be  imagined.  The  infant  schools  were  con- 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education  727 

trived  to  meet  this  situation.  In  1818  the  new  idea  was 
carried  to  London  by  James  Buchanan,  the  teacher  of  Owen's 
school,  and  soon  in  the  person  of  Samuel  Wilderspin  found  an 
enterprising  exponent  who  was  at  the  same  time  a  voluminous 
writer.  In  1834  "The  Home  and  Colonial  Infant  School 
Society  "  was  formed  for  the  multiplication  of  schools  based 
upon  Wilderspin's  ideas.  Almost  ten  years  before  this  time 
the  schools  had  appeared  in  New  York,  and  were  soon  imi- 
tated in  most  of  the  other  large  cities  of  the  country.  Even 
where  public  schools  were  established  no  provision  was  made 
for  children  of  the  earliest  years ;  the  monitorial  schools  in 
most  places  similarly  restricted  their  clientele.  In  the  early 
nineteenth  century  the  public  schools  of  Boston  were  for- 
bidden to  receive  children  who  could  not  read  and  write. 
The  Infant  School  Societies  found  abundant  work  to  do.  in 
most  cities.  In  many  places,  as  in  New  York  City,  they 
were  the  progenitors  of  the  primary  department  of  the  public 
schools;  and  to  the  present  day,  the  independent  organization 
of  the  primary  department  and  the  sharp  division  drawn  for 
it  in  the  school  building  is  but  a  survival  of  the  distinct 
origins  of  the  grammar  and  primary  grades. 

Public  School  Societies  in  the  United  States. —  All  of  these 
educational  interests  were  promoted  and  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  educational  opportunity  was  furnished,  by  the  organi- 
zation of  citizens  into  quasi-public  societies.  The  history  of 
schools  in  one  city  will  serve  as  a  type.  With  the  exception  of 
Church  schools,  and  a  school  for  negroes  founded  in  1787  and 
supported  by  the  African  Free  School  Society,  there  were  no 
free  schools  in  New  York  City  until  1805.  During  that  year, 
under  the  leadership  of  De  Witt  Clinton,  the  mayor  of  the 
city,  a  free  school  society,  later  called  the  Public  School 
Society,  was  organized.  The  aim  of  this  institution  was  to 
offer  educational  opportunities  gratis  to  the  children  of  the 
poor  who  were  not  provided  for  by  the  existing  Church 
schools.  The  Lancasterian  method  of  organization  and  in- 


728  History  of  Education 

struction  was  adopted.  In  1827  an  infant  school  society 
was  formed  for  the  support  of  schools  for  children  from  three 
to  six.  While  the  Wilderspin  organization  was  followed, 
there  was  an  attempt  to  adopt  the  Pestalozzian  method. 
Within  a  few  years  these  schools  were  incorporated  into  the 
Public  School  Society  as  primary  departments.  In  addition 
to  funds  contributed  by  private  parties  and  those  raised  by 
lotteries,  the  state,  from  1816,  had  contributed  from  the  com- 
mon school  fund  to  the  work  of  this  society,  and  the  city  had 
made  annual  appropriations.  In  1842  a  city  school  board 
was  formed  and  public  schools  were  established  under  its 
control.  It  was  not  until  1853  that  the  schools  of  the  society 
were  transferred  to  the  control  of  the  school  board  and  a 
free  public  school  system  was  really  established.  While  the 
transition  was  somewhat  more  tardily  accomplished  in  New 
York  than  in  other  communities,  yet  every  American  city, 
except  a  few  of  New  England,  passed  through  a  similar 
development.  Public  school  societies,  not  always  bearing 
this  exact  title,  existed  in  Philadelphia,  Buffalo,  Albany,  and 
even  as  far  west  as  Cincinnati. 

In  Boston,  where  elementary  schools  had  existed  in  con- 
nection with  the  Latin  Grammar  School  since  1666,  and 
probably  from  an  even  earlier  date,  and  where  such  schools 
had  long  been  free,  primary  schools  were  no  part  of  the  pub- 
lic school  system.  The  reason  for  this  is  somewhat  peculiar. 
The  law  required  that  the  child  could  not  be  admitted  into 
the  grammar  (or  public  vernacular)  school  until  he  could  read 
and  spell.  While  it  also  authorized  the  establishment  of 
these  primary  schools,  none  had  been  formed.  Such  instruc- 
tion was  gained  through  the  Church  schools,  the  numerous 
private  schools,  and  through  one  other  form  of  school  fostered 
by  societies,  the  Sunday-schools,  established  at  first  for  secu- 
lar instruction.  In  1817  it  was  found  that  while  2365  chil- 
dren attended  the  public  grammar  schools,  there  were  3767 
children  attending  private  schools,  365  attending  charity 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education  729 

schools,  and  526  of  primary  school  age  not  attending  school 
at  all.  A  primary  school  society  was  formed  in  the  follow- 
ing year.  While  this  movement  was  opposed  by  the  town 
selectmen  and  the  school  committeemen,  it  was  approved  by 
the  town  and  supported  for  the  most  part  by  town  funds. 
These  schools  were  incorporated  with  the  other  city  schools 
in  1855.  Thus  in  various  ways  private  philanthropy  came  to 
the  assistance  of  public  enterprise  in  the  support  of  schools. 
With  regard  to  common  schools  at  least,  the  philanthropic- 
religious  period  was  terminated  by  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  yet  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  kindergarten 
and  manual  training  schools  have  found  their  way  into  the 
public  schools  within  a  generation,  largely  through  the  chan- 
nel of  privately  supported  organizations. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  MODERN  STATE  SYSTEMS  OF 
EDUCATION.  —  In  considering  the  somewhat  tardy  develop- 
ment of  public,  especially  city  school  systems  in  our  own 
country,  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  few  other  municipal 
services  were  at  that  time  developed.  Water  supply,  street 
lighting,  street  cleaning,  fire  protection,  even  police  protection, 
were  yet  matters  of  private  enterprise.  When  the  absence  of 
all  experience  in  any  generous  support  of  educational  activi- 
ties by  taxation  is  borne  in  mind,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  that 
the  development  of  the  idea  of  free  public  schools  and  of  a 
willingness  to  support  them  by  general  taxation  were  of  slow 
growth.  In  aristocratic  states,  such  as  those  of  the  Teutonic 
peoples,  where  the  foresight  of  the  ruling  classes  rather  than 
the  general  intelligence  and  generosity  of  the  people  deter- 
mined the  situation,  less  opposition  to  the  development  of  the 
modern  attitude  toward  education  would  be  found.  But  a 
more  important  factor  than  the  aristocratic-social  one  was  the 
ecclesiastical-political  one.  Previous  to  the  later  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  it  was  the  religious  motive  that  controlled 
in  education.  Consequently  only  where  the  Church  and  State 


730  History  of  Education 

were  closely  united  and  where  the  Church  desired  to  carr) 
out  some  general  scheme  of  education,  did  the  State  attempt 
to  develop  and  control  systems  of  public  schools.  The 
regions  where  these  conditions  prevailed  have  been  noticed 
previously  (pp.  407,  435-437)- 

Germany.  — Thus  it  happened  that  state  systems  of  schools 
first  developed  in  Germany;  that,  as  a  result,  the  philanthropic 
phase  of  school  development  was  less  prominent  there  because 
less  necessary  and  was  wholly  of  a  supplementary  and  reforma- 
tory nature ;  and  that  there  the  politico-economic  stage  of 
school  development  was  first  reached  and  most  thoroughly 
carried  out.  The  politico-economic  motive,  while  very  defi- 
nitely announced  by  Luther  (pp.  411-414),  came  slowly  into 
public  acceptance.  It  was  the  religious  motive  that  was  upper- 
most and  the  Church  that  was  speaking  through  the  State. 
Philanthropic  movements,  supplementing  this  development 
and  assisting  toward  the  more  complete  recognition  of  the 
sociological  conception  of  education,  have  been  noted  from 
time  to  time. 

The  first  clear  recognition  of  the  conception  that  education 
lies  at  the  basis  of  the  economic  prosperity,  the  political 
power,  and  the  social  well-being  of  a  people  was,  as  men- 
tioned, by  Frederick  the  Great  and  other  German  monarchs 
of  the  later  eighteenth  century.  It  was  not  until  1763,  at 
the  close  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  that  he  could  turn  his 
great  energies  to  the  subject  of  education.  In  his  General 
School  Regulations^-  of  that  year,  school  attendance  was  made 
compulsory,  adequate  training  and  compensation  for  teachers 
were  provided,  proper  text-books  arranged  for,  methods  im- 
proved, supervision  secured,  and  religious  toleration  in  edu- 
cation proclaimed. 

It  was  not  until  1794  that  the  transition  to  the  new  basis 
was  completed.  In  the  school  law  of  that  year,  which  met 

1  See  Barnard's  German  Teachers  and  Educators,  p.  593,  for  translation  of 
these  regulations  in  full. 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education  731 

with  prolonged  opposition  from  the  clergy  and  from  large 
portions  of  the  people,  a  variety  of  new  principles  were 
stated.  All  public  schools  and  educational  institutions  were 
declared  to  be  state  institutions.  All  schools,  whether  private 
or  not,  were  to  be  under  the  control  and  supervision  of  the 
state.  All  teachers  of  the  gymnasien  and  higher  schools  were 
to  be  considered  state  officers  and  the  appointment  of  such 
teachers  belonged  to  the  state.  No  person  could  be  excluded 
from  a  public  school  on  account  of  religious  belief,  nor  could 
a  child  be  compelled  to  remain  for  religious  instruction  con- 
trary to  the  faith  in  which  he  had  been  brought  up.  From 
1808  to  181 1,  under  Von  Humboldt  and  Von  Schuckmann,  the 
spirit  and  conduct  of  the  elementary  schools  were  revolution- 
ized  by  the  introduction  of  improved  methods  based  upon 
those  of  Pestalozzi. 

General  revision  of  the  school  laws  of  Prussia  occurred  in 
1825,  1854,  1872.  The  tendency  of  these  revisions  as  well  as  of 
subsequent  minor  changes  has  been  toward  the  more  general 
support  of  schools  by  the  central  government,  with  corre- 
sponding diminution  of  support  from  local  and  private 
sources  ;  toward  the  complete  abolition  of  tuition  fees  for  the 
elementary  schools ;  toward  the  centralization  of  the  admin- 
istration and  supervision  of  schools  at  the  expense  of  the  rights 
of  the  local  community;  toward  an  improvement  of  the 
teaching  staff  and  of  the  processes  of  instruction;  and  toward 
the  complete  elimination  of  ecclesiastical  influence.  While 
local  pastors  are  found  in  the  great  majority  of  local  school 
boards,  the  sentiment  of  the  school  as  represented  by  the 
teaching  class  is  strongly  in  favor  of  the  elimination  of  the  one 
remaining  form  of  ecclesiastical  control.  The  point  to  which 
other  countries  must  give  so  much  attention  —  the  administra- 
tion of  an  effective  compulsory  school  law  —  has  been  on  ac- 
count of  long  experience  almost  automatically  operative  in 
Germany  for  more  than  a  century. 

France.  —  Agitation  for  public  education  in  France  began 


732  History  of  Education 

with  the  campaign  in  public  opinion  against  the  Jesuits  and 
with  their  expulsion  (1764).  Yet  at  the  opening  of  the 
Revolution  more  than  half  of  the  men  and  three-fourths  of 
the  women  of  France  could  not  sign  their  names.  The 
importance  of  the  educational  discussion  in  the  literature  and 
reports  of  the  Revolution  has  previously  been  mentioned 
(P-  575)-  The  early  Revolutionary  Assemblies  received  many 
reports  on  education ;  the  later  Conventions  passed  many 
laws.  But  little  in  the  way  of  execution  was  accomplished. 
In  1795  the  National  Normal  School  and  numerous  second- 
ary schools,  The  Central  Colleges,  were  established.  Condi- 
tions  were  so  chaotic  that  little  was  accomplished  and  this 
little  did  not  effect  the  one  thing  demanded  by  the  Revolu- 
tionary sentiment,  —  universal,  compulsory,  free  education. 
In  1806  was  established  the  University  of  France,  which 
included  in  itself,  practically  as  a  department  of  the  national 
government,  all  secondary  and  higher  education.  Both 
Napoleon  and  the  government  of  the  Restoration  neglected 
elementary  education.  This  was  left  to  religious  societies 
and  monitorial  schools  after  the  plan  of  Bell  and  Lancaster. 
Public  elementary  education  dates  from  1833.  At  that  time 
Guizot,  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  proposed  and  carried 
into  execution  a  law  which  established  elementary  schools  of 
two  grades,  primary  and  grammar,  in  practically  every  com- 
mune. These  offered  tuition  to  the  poor  without  expense ; 
provided  religious  instruction  and  reserved  to  the  government 
the  right  of  appointing  teachers  and  determined  their  salaries. 
Primary  education  was  made  free  in  1881  and  compulsory  in 
1882  ;  the  present  organic  law  establishing  the  most  perfect 
system  of  centralized  and  state-controlled  schools  now  in  exist- 
ence dates  from  1886.  Until  very  recently  Church  schools 
were  as  numerous  and  more  influential  than  the  non-sectarian 
state  schools.  Until  1882  religious  instruction  was  given  in 
all  schools.  All  private  schools  are  required  to  have  the 
sanction  of  the  state.  Since  1901  all  religious  congregations 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          733 

have  been  required  to  obtain  authorization  and  legal  recog- 
nition in  order  to  carry  on  educational  work.  The  supple- 
mentary legislation  of  1903  has  practically  closed  all  religious 
schools. 

England.  —  In  England,  the  land  of  institutional  evolution 
rather  than  of  revolution,  this  transition  to  the  politico-eco- 
nomic stage  has  been  longest  delayed  and  is  yet  far  from 
complete.  The  various  philanthropic-religious  school  soci- 
eties have  been  enumerated  in  connection  with  the  move- 
ments from  which  they  sprang.  As  in  many  localities  of  the 
United  States,  the  first  public  support  of  education  came  in 
the  form  of  grants  to  these  societies.  Beginning  in  1833,  after 
a  long  controversy  as  to  whether  the  government  had  any 
right  at  all  to  interfere  in  connection  with  education,  the 
English  government  continued  to  grant  annually  an  ever 
increasing  amount  to  the  schools  maintained  by  the  National 
Society  and  the  British  and  Foreign  School  Societies.  These 
grants  were  used  chiefly  for  the  erection  of  schoolhouses  and 
upon  condition  of  the  right  of  government  inspection.  In 
practice  none  but  clergymen  were  appointed  inspectors; 
moreover,  schools  were  required  by  law  to  give  instruction  in 
religion.  As  a  result  of  parliamentary  grants,  teachers 'train- 
ing colleges  were  opened  in  connection  with  these  societies 
in  1841  and  1844.  Grants  for  pupil  teachers,  for  books,  for 
school  supplies,  were  added  within  a  few  years.  In  1861  the 
system  of  distributing  these  grants  according  to  the  number 
of  pupils  that  had  satisfactorily  passed  the  examinations  given 
by  government  inspectors  in  specified  subjects  was  adopted. 
This  is  the  "  payment  by  result "  system,  which  produced  a 
formalizing  tendency  in  the  work  of  the  schools  and  has  only 
recently  been  abandoned.  By  the  act  of  1870  were  estab- 
lished the  first  elementary  schools  organized,  supported,  and 
supervised  by  the  state.  These  are  the  "board  schools," 
controlled  by  local  boards  and  supported  partially  by  local 
taxation,  which  must  be  at  least  equal  to  the  government 


734  History  of  Education 

grants.  Until  1903  no  voluntary  or  Church  school  was  per 
mitted  to  participate  in  funds  from  local  rates.  By  the  law 
of  1870  compulsory  attendance  regulations  might  be  adopted 
by  district  school  boards ;  but  until  there  were  schools,  such 
laws  would  be  anomalous.  By  the  law  of  1880  compulsory 
attendance  under  ten  was  provided  for;  by  that  of  1899  the 
age  was  raised  to  twelve,  and  by  that  of  1900  the  local  boards 
were  permitted  to  raise  the  age  limit  to  fourteen.  Until  1903 
these  two  systems  of  state  or  "board  schools"  and  Church  or 
"  voluntary  schools  "  remained  side  by  side.  While  the  volun- 
tary schools  were  yet  more  than  twice  as  numerous  as  the 
board  schools,  in  the  number  of  teachers  the  latter  had  outrun 
the  former ;  the  number  of  pupils  in  each  class  was  about 
the  same.  There  were  5878  board  schools  with  38,395 
teachers,  to  14,275  voluntary  schools  with  29,283  teachers. 
The  relationship  of  these  two  types  of  schools  to  each  other 
and  to  the  governmental  grants  remains  the  most  prominent 
educational  problem  of  England. 

The  United  States.  Early  Free  Schools.  —  It  appears  that 
from  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  some  of  the  town 
schools  of  Massachusetts  were  free  in  the  modern  sense  of  the 
term  in  that  they  were  supported  wholly  by  public  taxation. 
Many  of  the  early  New  England  schools  received  their  sup- 
port from  a  variety  of  sources,  such  as  the  sale  or  rental  of 
public  lands,  rental  from  fish  weirs,  from  ferries,  from  be- 
quest and  private  gift,  from  subscription,  from  local  rates,  and 
in  nearly  all  cases  from  tuition  of  students.  Wherever  in 
the  colonies  it  was  customary  for  the  local  or  colonial  govern- 
ment to  assist  schools  by  grants  or  by  taxes,  it  was  also 
customary  for  the  schoolmaster  to  supplement  this  small 
allowance  by  tuition  charges  regulated  for  the  most  part  by 
common  custom.  As  the  schools  established  by  the  towns 
required  some  previous  training  on  the  part  of  those  entering 
them,  usually  the  knowledge  of  the  alphabet  or  the  ability 
to  read,  "  dame  schools  "  of  a  most  rudimentary  character 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education  735 

sprang  up  in  great  numbers.  The  government  of  the  New 
England  towns  was  a  pure  democracy,  and  the  control  of 
schools  remained  for  a  long  time  in  the  hands  of  the  town 
meeting  itself.  Only  gradually  were  powers  delegated  first 
to  the  selectmen  and  then,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  to  a  school 
committee.  Then  the  necessity  for  tuition  fees  from  the  pupil 
was  replaced  by  a  more  generous  assessment  upon  the  town. 
Thus  it  happened  that  in  Massachusetts  by  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  in  other  New  England  commonwealths 
shortly  afterward,  elementary  schools  were  for  the  most  part 
free.  These  early  systems  of  public  or  free  schools  were 
largely  due  to  the  religious  devotion  of  the  New  England 
people  and  to  the  practical  identity  of  Church  and  State. 
The  Educational  Revival  of  the  Early  Nineteenth  Century. 

—  With  the  decline  of  the  religious  fervor  and  of  the  una- 
nimity of  religious   belief  in   the   later  eighteenth  century, 
interest    in    education   declined   also ;    the    Latin   grammar 
schools  disappeared  (p.  395);  private  schools — the  academies 

—  took  their  place ;  and  the  elementary  schools  became  more 
minutely  subdivided  and   less  generously  supported.      The 
establishment  of  schools  upon  a  politico-economic  basis  was  a 
growth  of  the  nineteenth  century.     Although  this  transition 
went  on  during  the  entire  half  century,  it  was  concentrated 
in  the  period  from  1835  to  1850,  to  which  has  been  given  the 
name   of  its   leading   agitator,   Horace    Mann  (1796-1859). 
Since  schools  were  very  generally  supported  by  local  taxation 
in  Massachusetts,  the  reforms  striven  for  by  Mann  as  secre- 
tary of  the  Massachusetts  School  Board  (183 7- 1849)  were  the 
abolition  of  the  small  district  schools  in  favor  of  the  better- 
supported,  better-taught,  better-equipped  and  more  centralized 
town  schools,  a  better  preparation  for  teachers,  the  establish- 
ment of  normal  training  schools,  a  longer  school  term,  school 
libraries,  an  enriched  curriculum,    improved  methods  of  in- 
struction,  and  the   building   up    of   a   spirit  of  educational 
enthusiasm   among   the   people   and    of    professional   spirit 


736  History  of  Education 

among  the  teachers.  The  immediate  result  of  the  labors  ot 
this  first  great  organizer  of  American  educational  forces  was 
that  during  his  secretaryship  the  appropriations  for  the  com- 
mon schools  were  doubled,  the  wages  of  men  teachers 
increased  62  per  cent  and  those  of  women  teachers  5 1  per 
cent;  the  relative  number  of  women  teachers  increased  54 
per  cent;  the  annual  school  term  was  increased  by  one 
month ;  the  ratio  of  private  to  public  school  expenditure  fell 
from  75  to  36 ;  compensation  for  school  supervision  was 
made  compulsory,  and  hence  both  compensation  and  super- 
vision increased  and  improved ;  fifty  new  high  schools  were 
established;  the  first  normal  schools  in  America  were 
founded;  school  attendance  increased;  methods,  discipline,  and 
spirit  of  the  schoolroom  were  changed  vastly  for  the  better. 
One  great  object  which  Mann  sought  for  —  the  abolition  of 
the  district  school  system  —  was  not  accomplished  (1859) 
until  after  his  retirement  from  office,  and  not  permanently 
until  1882. 

This  educational  revival  was  not  confined  to  Massachusetts  ; 
there  were  many  leaders  as  able  and  some,  such  as  Henry 
Barnard,  as  prominent  as  Horace  Mann.  Chairs  of  education 
were  established  in  several  colleges.  Though  there  had  been 
one  state  superintendent  of  education  before  this  time  (in 
New  York  from  1813),  many  states  now  established  such  an 
office.  A  movement  toward  the  concentration  of  administra- 
tion of  school  affairs  began.  Educational  magazines  were 
established  and  a  voluminous  literature  appeared.  Educa- 
tional commissioners  were  sent  abroad  by  several  states; 
common  school  funds  were  established  ;  and,  above  all,  some 
progress  was  made,  by  the  leaders  at  least,  toward  an  ap- 
preciation of  modern  methods  and  the  modern  spirit  in 
education.  This  latter  came  largely  through  a  greater  knowl- 
edge of  and  appreciation  for  the  ideas  and  methods  of  Pesta- 
lozzi  and  of  the  German  schools. 

Modern  State  Systems  of  Education.  —  As  with  Germany, 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          737 

there  is  no  single  system  of  education  in  the  United  States, 
but  an  independent  system  for  each  state.  Yet  the  outline 
and  general  characteristics  of  these  systems  are  much  the 
same.  The  amalgamation,  or  development  into  consistent 
state  systems,  was  an  outgrowth  of  the  revival  previously  dis- 
cussed and  of  the  establishment  of  the  free  school  idea.  The 
final  establishment  of  the  idea  of  free  schools  in  the  modern 
sense  of  the  term  was  of  quite  recent  occurrence.  In  New 
York  the  abolition  of  tuition  in  public  schools  was  made  by 
law  in  1867.  In  New  Jersey  and  Michigan  it  did  not  occur 
until  the  following  year.  In  Pennsylvania  the  law  was  passed 
in  1834,  and  in  Indiana  it  was  embodied  in  the  constitution  of 
1851.  The  free  school  system,  thus  developed,  is  constituted 
as  follows :  In  every  state  the  system  of  elementary  schools 
offers  instruction  for  seven,  eight,  or  nine  years,  from  the  fifth 
or  sixth  year  of  age.  In  most  states  a  secondary  or  high  school 
course  provides  instruction  for  three  or  four  additional  years. 
In  all  except  a  few  of  the  extreme  eastern  commonwealths, 
state  universities  offering  free  tuition  to  all,  or  to  all  from 
within  the  state,  are  to  be  found.  In  only  a  few  states  are  the 
local  communities  compelled  by  law  to  furnish  high  schools 
or  to  provide  in  neighboring  schools  for  all  children  who 
desire  the  advantages  of  a  secondary  school.  Varying  de- 
grees of  unification  among  these  parts  of  the  school  system 
or  in  the  administration  of  any  particular  part  of  it,  as  that 
of  the  elementary  schools,  exist.  The  same  forces  that 
worked  toward  the  development  of  this  system  now  work 
for  the  closer  unification  in  administration.  First  among 
these  is  the  influence  of  the  general  government  exerted 
through  the  very  generous  gifts  which  constitute  a  bond  of 
interest  for  all  institutions  that  participate  in  the  privileges. 
Thus  since  1785  the  government  has  given  to  the  common 
school  system  78,659,439  acres  of  land,  valued  at  about  one 
hundred  million  dollars,  and  for  agricultural  educational  insti- 
tutions an  annual  endowment  which  capitalized  would  amount 
3B 


738  History  of  Education 

to  a  sum  equal  to  the  former  one.  A  second  factor  is  the 
influence  exerted  by  the  state  government  through  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  revenue  derived  from  common  school  funds, 
in  most  cases  those  growing  out  of  the  gifts  of  land  from 
the  general  government  and  of  the  funds  from  state  taxa- 
tion. Such  distribution  has  usually  been  so  conducted  as  to 
call  forth  a  greater  effort  of  the  local  community  in  the 
matter  of  local  taxes  and  to  maintain  higher  standards  of 
teaching  efficiency  than  mere  local  control  would  have 
secured.  The  influence  of  state  universities  as  the  culmina- 
tion of  the  public  school  system  has  been  a  yet  further  cause 
of  unification.  Undoubtedly  the  greater  influence  resulting 
from  the  building  up  of  these  state  systems  of  public 
schools  has  been  the  education  of  the  people  themselves  to 
a  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  education  as  a  solution  for  many 
social  problems,  in  the  necessity  of  education  as  a  basis  of 
political  stability  and  economic  progress,  and  to  a  dependence 
upon  education  as  the  chief  means  of  social  and  national 
progress ;  in  other  words,  to  an  acceptance  of  the  socio- 
logical conception  of  education.  Along  with  this  has  devel- 
oped a  willingness  to  tax  themselves  heavily  for  the  most 
general  support  of  the  public  schools  and  a  consequent 
tendency  to  greater  centralization  of  administration  and 
supervision  as  a  means  to  greater  efficiency.  During  the 
earlier  part  of  the  century  there  prevailed  the  idea  that 
free  schooling  was  a  matter  of  charity  and  that  it  was 
pauperizing  in  its  effect.  Although  that  prejudice  has  dis- 
appeared with  the  growth  of  the  free  school  system,  there 
yet  remains  to  be  thoroughly  inculcated  the  idea  that  for  the 
welfare  of  the  group  as  well  as  of  the  individual,  the  state  may 
and  should  compel  the  attendance  of  every  child  for  a  period 
of  six  or  eight  full  years.  A  further  development  of  compul- 
sory attendance  laws,  which  have  nowhere  reached  the  stage 
of  efficiency  found  in  the  leading  European  nations ;  a  better 
preparation  of  teachers  and  a  better  supervision  of  their  work ; 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          739 

a  perfecting  of  the  process  of  instruction  and  of  the  technique 
of  instruction  that  these  new  ideas  may  be  realized — such 
are  the  lines  of  development  open  to  the  public  school  system 
of  the  present. 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  TENDENCY.  —  The  politico-economic 
tendency  until  very  recently  has  been  dominantly  political ; 
it  is  now  becoming  dominantly  economic.  In  order  to  under- 
stand one  of  the  most  prominent  characteristics  of  present 
educational  activities,  this  fact  needs  some  further  explanation. 
The  agreement  of  the  scientific  and  the  sociological  move- 
ment in  their  earlier  effects  on  education  has  been  mentioned. 
The  fact  that  the  basis  for  this  early  sociological  movement 
was  chiefly  political  and  military  can  be  illustrated  by  this  one 
series  of  facts  :  with  the  exception  of  the  school  in  connection 
with  the  royal  mines  at  Freiburg,  Saxony,  the  first  institution 
for  the  higher  education  in  engineering  and  other  scientific 
lines  was  the  Austrian  Military  School  at  Vienna,  established 
by  Maria  Theresa  in  1747 ;  the  French  monarch  followed  with 
the  school  at  Menzieres  within  a  year  or  two  ;  and  Frederick 
the  Great  established  a  Ritter-Academie  of  a  similar  character 
in  1764.  The  first  school  for  scientific  and  engineering  instruc- 
tion in  our  own  country  was  at  West  Point  (1802).  The  first 
technical  instruction  of  a  public  character  in  England  was 
the  outgrowth  of  the  training  of  naval  and  military  officers, 
and  then  not  until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Until  recently  the  training  for  citizenship  that  has  always 
been  assigned  as  a  chief  function  of  state  systems  of  schools 
has  been  along  political  and  social  lines.  The  aim  of  educa- 
tion was  to  prepare  the  individual  to  exercise  the  right  of 
suffrage  intelligently,  to  perform  the  duties  of  citizenship 
fully  and  honestly,  to  discharge  the  duties  of  office  satis- 
factorily. At  least  in  our  own  country,  with  its  democratic 
social  structure,  the  emphasis  in  public  education  has  been 
largely  from  this  point  of  view.  For  several  decades  past  in 


74O  History  of  Education 

Europe,  and  in  recent  times  in  our  own  country,  a  new  inter- 
pretation of  education  for  citizenship  is  being  given.  It  is 
that  education  is  to  make  the  individual  a  productive  social 
unit  economically  and  hence  a  valuable  citizen.  Especially 
in  continental  Europe,  above  all  in  Germany,  has  this  tendency 
been  long  emphasized.  The  commercial  and  industrial  ad- 
vance, and  that  means  the  political  and  social  advance,  of  the 
various  nations  during  the  past  half  century,  has  been  in 
very  vital  relationship  to  their  educational  advance.  England 
and  America  have  just  awakened  to  this  fact;  hence  many 
radical  changes  are  now  being  proposed,  or  even  actually 
introduced  into  school  work.  The  demand  for  education  for 
citizenship  has  been  chiefly  met  until  the  last  decade  by  the 
introduction  of  the  study  of  history,  civics,  and  economics  into 
the  school,  the  inculcation  of  patriotism  by  various  forms  of 
exercises  and  by  the  insistence  upon  the  moral  aim  of  public 
school  work.  Within  the  last  few  years  the  same  ideas  have 
resulted  in  a  demand  for  an  economic  training  of  the  most 
practical  kind  and  for  the  actual  introduction  of  industrial 
training  into  the  school  curriculum.  Especially,  in  our  large 
urban  communities,  with  great  numbers  of  foreign  emigrants, 
is  it  recognized  that  this  is  one  of  the  first  essentials  of  good 
citizenship,  and  that  it  must  become  a  function  of  the  school. 
Some  explanation  of  this  change,  as  found  in  social  con- 
ditions, needs  to  be  sought  for.  Since  the  opening  of  the 
eighteenth  century  all  wars,  formerly  produced  by  religious 
or  purely  political  conditions,  have  been  at  basis  economic. 
Within  the  present  century  most  treaties  and  most  inter- 
national relations  have  been  determined  by  economic  condi- 
tions. The  great  need  for  national  and  colonial  expansion, 
the  dominant  motives  of  nations  at  present,  is  caused  by 
economic  conditions ;  the  power,  the  stability,  the  influence 
of  a  nation  depends  upon  its  economic  status.  The  rivalry 
between  nations  at  the  present  is  predominantly  an  eco- 
nomic one.  The  one  qualification  of  good  citizenship  that 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          741 

is  coming  to  take  precedence  over  all  others  is  economic  pro 
ductiveness.  The  wealth  of  nations  and  the  per  capita 
wealth  of  citizens  has  increased  tremendously  in  recent  times. 
The  economic  productiveness  of  individuals  has  increased  in 
a  similar  way.  The  training  in  this  productive  power  has, 
however,  been  left  for  the  most  part  to  individual  initiative. 
This  is  especially  true  in  our  own  country.  Here  the  great 
demand  was  that  things  should  be  done  quickly ;  in  the  over- 
coming of  great  obstacles  the  thing  that  was  demanded  was 
rapidity  and  ultimate  success.  Material  has  been  so  cheap, 
the  forces  of  nature  so  generously  bestowed,  that  in  almost 
every  case  initiative,  ingenuity,  industry,  were  the  only 
requisites.  Economy  in  other  respects  was  no  saving.  As 
is  evidenced  by  the  rebuilding  of  railway  lines  and  of  larger 
manufacturing  plants,  by  the  rejection  of  machinery  and  often 
of  entire  plants  not  worn  out  but  simply  out  of  date,  by  the 
relegation  of  old  inventions  to  the  rear,  by  the  increasing 
demand  for  young  men  with  scientific  training  in  place  of  old 
men  with  practical  experience  only,  —  all  this  is  now  being 
changed.  The  one  thing  that  rival  nations,  rival  regions, 
rival  firms,  are  now  coming  to  rely  upon  as  an  offset  or  a 
means  of  equalization  to  climatic  conditions,  racial  character- 
istics, cost  of  living,  cost  of  raw  material,  is  specialization  in 
economic,  technical,  and  commercial  education. 

On  account  of  the  greater  intensity  of  this  industrial  rivalry, 
most  European  countries  have  responded  more  immediately 
to  this  new  demand  than  have  we  in  America.  Of  all  nations 
France  has  made  most  radical  changes  in  this  respect.  Agri- 
cultural instruction  is  given  in  every  rural  school,  manual  or 
technical  training  in  every  urban  school.  Needlework,  cook- 
ing, horticulture,  and  in  localities  special  technical  subjects  of 
local  interest  are  taught.  School  museums,  school  gardens, 
school  libraries,  are  more  generally  provided  than  in  any  other 
country,  in  the  endeavor  to  relate  the  school  immediately  to 
practical  life.  In  England  among  the  subjects  for  which 


742  History  of  Education 

payment  is  made  by  the  government  and  which  are  quite  gen- 
erally  adopted  are  cooking,  sewing,  manual  training.  Other 
subjects  not  so  generally  incorporated,  but  still  subsidized, 
are  domestic  economy,  laundry  work,  dairy  work,  cottage 
gardening,  and  "  suitable  occupations  "  adapted  to  particular 
localities.  The  same  variation  in  the  special  subjects  adopted 
occurs  in  English  schools  that  does  in  American  schools. 
Dutch  schools  include  instruction  in  dairying  and  various 
local  industries.  The  Swiss  provide,  either  in  the  elementary 
schools  or  in  supplementary  schools,  for  technical  training 
in  every  one  of  the  industries  peculiar  to  their  country.  In 
Germany  the  tendency  to  introduce  technical  subjects  into 
the  elementary  grades  has  not  been  so  general.  Needlework 
has  been  generally  accepted ;  manual  training  less  so. 

But  in  Germany  this  tendency  is  seen  at  its  best  in  the 
continuation  schools,  night  schools,  and  various  types  of 
secondary  technical  and  trade  schools  of  the  greatest  variety, 
now  to  be  mentioned.  It  is  in  technical  instruction  in  higher 
fields  that  most  progress  has  been  made  of  recent  years. 
These  are  in  addition  to  and  even  of  a  more  practical  kind 
than  those  engineering  schools,  chiefly  of  collegiate  and  uni- 
versity grade  for  professional  training,  that  have  been  re- 
ferred to  previously.  Technical  schools,  training  for  almost 
all  lines  of  industry  and  trade,  have  followed.  Among  these 
are  schools  of  design,  of  textile  weaving,  of  pottery  making 
and  design,  of  dyeing,  and  of  all  forms  of  practical  chemistry. 
Of  a  more  general  character  are  those  schools  (the  Bauge- 
werkeschulen)  that  admit  students  of  practical  experience  to 
courses  dealing  with  the  principles  and  practices  of  building 
construction,  the  nature  of  materials,  mechanical  and  free- 
hand drawing,  modeling,  science,  mathematics,  etc.  Many 
different  types  of  these  schools  exist  in  all  continental  Euro- 
pean states,  but  most  numerously  in  Germany  and  Austria, 
and  all  are  supported  by  the  state.  Some  give  direct  training 
in  the  trades  (Fachschuleri}.  Less  technical  are  the  industrial 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          743 

schools  (Industrieschulen  and  Gewerbeschtilen).  The  indus- 
trial and  applied  art  schools  (KunstgewerbescJiulen),  and  more 
important  still  the  continuation  schools  (Fortbildungschulen), 
continue  the  work  of  the  elementary  school  along  all  these 
practical  lines.  School  sessions  are  held  on  week  days,  on 
Sundays  and  on  evenings.  Allied  to  these  are  the  commer- 
cial schools  of  secondary  and  even  university  grade.  In  this 
respect,  as  in  all  others,  Germany,  with  its  schools  at  Cologne, 
Munich  and  other  places,  was  first  in  the  field  and  ever  in 
the  lead.  Except  in  the  cases  of  the  scientific  or  engineering 
schools  in  connection  with  the  leading  universities  and  a  few 
technical  and  trade  schools,  usually  of  secondary  grade  and 
always  under  private  auspices,  little  has  been  done  in  the 
United  States.  Great  Britain,  on  account  of  the  immediate 
character  of  this  industrial  competition  with  the  German 
countries,  has  responded  much  more  quickly,  and  has  a 
very  extensive  system  of  industrial  and  trade  schools  or 
classes  for  evening  instruction. 

In  the  United  States  progress  is  being  made  along  two 
lines ;  one  is  the  direct  establishment  of  industrial  schools, 
which  will  soon  be  incorporated  in  the  work  of  the  public 
schools,  at  least  as  evening  schools ;  the  other  is  in  the  modi- 
fied character  of  the  manual  training  instruction  so  generally 
given.  This  work,  introduced  quite  generally  since  1885, 
first  in  the  secondary  schools  of  our  larger  cities  and  recently 
in  the  elementary  grades  of  many  of  them,  was  first  largely  a 
training  in  processes  of  construction,  analyzed  into  its  parts. 
Its  object  for  the  most  part  was  to  train  the  senses  and  to 
develop  the  power  to  work  with  objective  material.  More 
recently  still  there  prevails  the  idea  of  Sloyd  work,  appealing 
to  the  interests  of  the  child  through  the  construction  of  a 
completed  object  and  of  something  useful  or  ornamental  in 
the  home.  But  the  present  tendency  seems  to  be  definitely 
toward  training  in  trade  and  craft  processes. 

Thus  through  the  subject  of  nature  study,  study  of  agri- 


744  History  of  Education 

culture,  sewing,  manual  training  in  the  grades ;  through  com- 
mercial high  schools,  trade  schools  as  yet  supported  by 
philanthropic  enterprise,  commercial  and  industrial  courses 
in  high  schools,  evening  schools,  manual  training  high 
schools,  in  the  secondary  field ;  through  colleges  of  commerce 
and  schools  of  applied  sciences,  either  initiated  or  projected 
in  the  higher  fields,  the  educational  system  of  the  United 
States  is  responding  to  this  most  recent  social  demand  upon 
education  which  has  already  such  remarkable  response  in 
European  countries. 

Thus  is  the  politico-economic  tendency  shifting  from  the 
political  to  the  economic  basis  in  education.  The  significance 
of  the  Froebelian  philosophy  of  education  in  placing  such 
industrial  and  constructive  work  on  a  rational  pedagogical 
basis  has  been  mentioned  (pp.  640,  659).  This  offers  the 
chief  explanation  of  the  fact  that  it  is  the  Froebelian  idea  of 
education  that  is  coming  to  prevail  in  the  present 

REFERENCES 
General  Sociological  Discussion,  etc. 

Davidson,  Education  as  World  Building,  in  Ed.  Rev.,  Vol.  20,  p.  325. 
Guyau,  Education  and  Heredity. 

Howerth,  Education  and  Evolution,  in  Ed.  Rev.,  Vols.  23,  24. 
Home,  Principles  of  Education,  Chs.  IV,  V.     (New  York,  1904.) 
Henderson,  Jefferson  on  Public  Education.     (New  York,  1890.) 
Jenks,  Education  for  Citizenship.     Nat.  Herbart.  Society,  1896. 
Mackenzie,  An  Introduction  to  Social  Philosophy.     (New  York,  1890.) 
Ross,  Social  Control,  Ch.  XIV.     (New  York,  1901.) 
Vincent,  The  Social  Mind  and  Education.     (New  York,  1897.) 
Ward,  Dynamic  Sociology,  Vol.  II,  Chs.  X-XIV.     (New  York,  1883.) 
Ware,  Educational  Foundations  of  Trade  and  Industry.     (New  York, 
1901.) 

Development  of  School  Systems. 
Balfour,  Educational  Systems  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland     (Oxford, 

I903-) 
Barnard,  German  Teachers  and  Educator*. 


Sociological  Tendency  in  Education          745 

Black  mar,  History  of  Federal  and  State  Aid  to  Higher  Education  in  tht 

United  States.     (United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  1890.) 
Brown,  Making  of  our  Middle  Schools. 
Butler,  Education  in  the  United  States.     (Albany,  1900.) 
Hinsdale,  Horace  Mann.     (New  York,  1898.) 
Hughes,  The  Making  of  a  Citizen.     (New  York,  1902.) 
Martin,  Evolution  of  the  Massachusetts  State  School  System.     (New  York, 

1901.) 

Palmer,  The  New  York  Public  Schools.     (New  York,  1905.) 
Randall,  History  of  Common  School  System  of  State  of  New  York.     (New 

York,  1873.) 
Report  of  the  Moseley  Educational  Commission  to  the   United  States. 

(London,  1904.) 

Russell,  German  Higher  Schools. 
Seeley,  German  School  System.     (New  York,  1896.) 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  Annual  Reports,  see  general  index 

and  educational  bibliographies. 
Wightman,  Annals  of  the  Primary  Schools.     (Boston,  1860.) 

For  special  subjects  of  industrial  education,  new  types  of  schools,  etc., 
see  magazine  literature  and  encyclopedic  articles. 

TOPICS  FOR  FURTHER  INVESTIGATION 

1.  What  in  detail  are  the  sociological  aspects  of  the  educational  theory 
of  Pestalozzi  as  discoverable  in  his  writings?     Of  Herbart?     Of  Froebel? 

2.  To  what  extent  does  Pestalozzi's  practical  work  possess  direct  socio- 
logical significance?     Herbart's?     Froebel's? 

3.  To  what  extent  does  the  sociological  conception  of  education  find 
expression  in  the  educational  writings  of  Kant?    Of  Fichte?    Of  Rosen- 
kranz? 

4.  What  is  Herbert  Spencer's  conception  of  history  and  to  what  extent 
is  it  correct?     To  what  extent  has  the  writing  of  text-books  and  of  histori- 
cal treatises  been  modified  in  accordance  with  these  ideas? 

5.  What  were  the  educational  ideas  of  Franklin?     Of  Washington? 
Of  Jefferson  ?    Of  Madison  ? 

6.  To  what  extent  did  these  men  or  any  one  of  them  participate  in  the 
educational  activities  of  his  times  ? 

7.  Is  the  definition  of  education  in  terms  of  citizenship  sufficient? 

8.  State  more  in  detail  the  conception  of  education  given  in  the  socio- 
logical writings  of  Comte.     Of  Ward.     Of  Spencer.     Of  Mackenzie.     Of 
Vincent. 


746  History  of  Education 

9.   Give  in  outline  the  substance  of  the  school  laws  of  Prussia  of  1763 
and  of  1790.     What  has  been  added  since? 

10.  What  concrete  educational  results  were  due  to  the  efforts  of  Freder- 
ick the  Great?     Of  Maria  Theresa?     Of  Duke  Ernst  of  Gotha-Altenburg? 
Of  the  French  Revolutionary  Conventions? 

11.  What  is  the  history  and  what  the  present  success  of  compulsory 
education  in  Prussia?     In  the  United  States? 

12.  Trace  out  in  any  given  locality  the   work   of  the  various  school 
societies  named,  or  of  any  one  of  them. 

13.  Give  an  outline  of  the  Lancasterian  school  movement  in  the  United 
States.     Of  the  Fellenberg  movement.     Of  the  Infant  school  movement. 

14.  To  what  extent  was  the  early  Sunday  school  movement  in  England 
or  in  the  United  States  related  to  secular  education? 

15.  Describe  the  educational  methods  of  the  Lancasterian  schools.     Of 
the  Fellenberg  schools.     Of  the  Infant  schools. 

1 6.  Trace   the   development  of  the   idea  of  free   schools  in  any  one 
American  commonwealth. 


CHAPTER   XIV 
CONCLUSION  :  THE  PRESENT  ECLECTIC  TENDENCY 

GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS.— The  educational  thought 
of  the  present  seeks  to  summarize  these  movements  of  the 
recent  past  and  to  rearrange  and  relate  the  essential  principles 
of  each  in  one  harmonious  whole.  The  educational  activity  of 
the  present  seeks  the  same  harmony  as  it  reduces  these  prin- 
ciples to  practical  schoolroom  procedure.  All  the  varieties 
of  experimentation,  all  of  the  frequent  changes  in  subject- 
matter,  in  method,  in  organization,  while  they  bring  their  evils 
and  appear  as  curious  phenomena  to  conservative  educators 
of  more  stable  societies,  have  yet  this  significance :  they  are 
recognitions  that  new  principles  have  been  formulated,  new 
truths  recognized,  and  that  practice  controlled  by  tradition 
or  by  principles  derived  from  a  partial  view  alone  must  be 
readjusted  in  closer  accord  with  the  new  truths  derived  from 
the  ever  expanding  knowledge  of  life  and  of  nature. 

FUSION  OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL,  SCIENTIFIC,  AND  SOCIO- 
LOGICAL TENDENCIES.  —  To  this  eclectic  view  of  education 
the  three  tendencies  in  the  educational  thought  of  the  eigh- 
teenth and  nineteenth  centuries  have  contributed.  In  the  main 
the  psychological  contributions  have  related  to  method ;  the 
scientific  to  subject-matter  ;  the  sociological  to  a  broader  aim 
and  a  better  institutional  machinery.  And  yet  each  move- 
ment has  exerted  some  influence  on  method,  on  purpose, 
on  organization  and  on  subject-matter.  The  most  promi- 
nent contributions  of  these  movements  can  be  summarized 

747 


748  History  of  Education 

in  a  few  sentences.  From  Rousseau  came  the  idea  that 
education  is  life,  that  it  must  center  in  the  child  and  that  it 
must  find  its  end  in  the  individual  and  in  each  particular  stage 
of  his  life.  From  Pestalozzi  came  the  idea  that  efficient  edu- 
cational work  depends  upon  an  actual  knowledge  of  the  child 
and  a  genuine  sympathy  for  him  ;  that  education  is  a  growth 
from  within,  not  a  series  of  accretions  from  without ;  that  this 
is  the  result  of  the  experiences  or  activities  of  the  child  ;  conse- 
quently, that  objects  not  symbols  must  form  the  basis  of  the 
process  of  instruction  ;  that  sense  perception,  not  processes 
of  memory,  form  the  basis  of  early  training.  From  Herbart 
came  the  idea  of  a  scientific  process  of  instruction;  a  scien- 
tific basis  for  the  organization  of  the  curriculum  ;  and  the  idea 
of  character  as  the  aim  of  instruction,  to  be  reached  scientifically 
through  the  use  of  method  and  curriculum  as  defined.  From 
Froebel  came  the  true  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  child  ; 
the  correct  interpretation  of  the  starting  point  of  education  in 
the  child's  tendency  to  activity;  the  true  interpretation  of  the 
curriculum  as  the  representation  to  the  child  of  the  epitome 
of  the  world's  experience  or  of  the  culture  inheritance  of  the 
race;  and  in  general  the  first,  and  as  yet  the  most  complete, 
application  of  the  theory  of  evolution  to  the  problem  of  educa- 
tion. From  the  scientific  tendency  came  the  insistence  upon 
a  revision  of  the  idea  of  a  liberal  education ;  a  new  definition 
of  the  culture  demanded  by  present  life ;  and  the  insistence 
stronger  than  ever  when  reenforced  by  the  sociological 
view,  that  industrial,  technical,  and  professional  training  be 
introduced  into  every  stage  of  education  and  that  it  all  be 
made  to  contribute  to  the  development  of  the  free  man,  — 
the  fully  developed  citizen.  From  the  sociological  tendency 
came  the  commonly  accepted  belief  that  education  is  the 
process  of  development  of  society ;  that  its  aim  is  to  produce 
good  citizens ;  that  this  is  accomplished  through  the  fullest 
development  of  personality  in  the  individual ;  that  this  de- 
velopment of  personal  ability  and  character  must  fit  the 


The  Present  Eclectic   Tendency  749 

individual  for  citizenship,  for  life  in  institutions  and  for  some 
form  of  productive  participation  in  present  social  activities  ; 
in  a  word,  that  one  must  learn  to  serve  himself  by  serving 
others. 

CURRENT  EDUCATIONAL  TENDENCIES.  —  A  more  profit- 
able and  more  concrete  summary  of  the  past  can  be  made  in 
terms  of  present  tendencies.  Most  evident  of  all  to  the 
teacher  are  the  many  changes  now  being  made  in  the  curricu- 
lum, in  the  attempt  to  make  it  expressive  of  present  social 
activities  and  aspirations.  Such  changes  are  chiefly  an  out- 
growth of  the  sociological  tendency.  Following  this  there  is 
the  effort  toward  making  educational  method  and  the  pro- 
cedure of  instruction  more  definite,  more  scientific,  and  more 
universally  followed.  This  requires  the  further  preliminary 
training  of  teachers  and  continuous  professional  study  by 
the  teacher  and  oversight  by  the  supervisor  throughout  the 
teaching  experience.  This,  above  all,  is  the  result  of  the  psy- 
chological tendency.  Connected  with  this  change  is  the  cor- 
related tendency  to  closer  articulation  of  subjects  within  the 
curriculum  and  of  the  various  types  of  schools  within  the 
system.  This  is  a  result  of  the  recognition  of  the  significance 
of  education  as  a  social  process,  of  the  more  scientific  char- 
acter of  schoolroom  work,  and  of  the  more  general  attention 
to  administration  and  the  perfection  of  institutions.  Hence 
there  is  at  present  a  combination  of  psychological,  scientific, 
and  sociological  influences. 

The  growing  centralization  in  school  administration  and 
the  more  thorough  and  scientific  school  supervision  are  the 
outcome  of  new  economic  conditions  bringing  about  centrali- 
zation in  all  lines  of  social  activities  and  a  specialization  in 
all  lines  of  work.  The  latest  phase  of  this  tendency  to 
specialization  is  revealed  in  all  the  professions,  among  them 
that  of  teaching.  This  results  in  another  tendency,  —  the 
recognition  of  teaching  as  a  vocation  and  as  a  profession 


75°  History  of  Education 

with  higher  and  more  definitely  recognized  standards.  This 
recognition  depends  primarily  upon  two  conditions ;  namely, 
the  demands  for  higher  qualifications  by  those  who  employ 
teachers,  and  the  incorporation  of  instruction  in  education 
and  training  in  teaching  into  the  professional  work  and 
cultural  investigations  of  higher  institutions  of  learning. 

One  of  the  present  tendencies  gives  rise  to,  as  well  as 
solves,  an  important  educational  problem.  The  complete 
secularization  of  schools  has  led  to  the  complete  exclusion  of 
religious  elements  in  public  education,  and  the  very  general 
exclusion  of  the  study  or  even  the  use  of  the  Bible  and  all 
religious  literature.  Thus  the  material  that  a  few  generations 
ago  furnished  the  sole  content  of  elementary  education  is  now 
entirely  excluded  and  a  problem  of  very  great  importance  — 
that  of  religious  education — is  presented.  Little  or  no  at- 
tempt at  solution  is  being  made  and  little  interest  aroused. 
The  problem  for  the  teacher  comes  to  be  quite  similar  to  that 
formulated  by  the  Greek  philosophers,  to  produce  character 
through  an  education  that  is  dominantly  rational  and  that 
excludes  all  recognition  of  the  traditional  religious  element. 
It  does  not  assist  in  solving  the  problem,  to  deny  that  as  a 
people  through  our  schools  we  have  definitely  rejected  re- 
vealed religion  as  a  basis  for  morality  and  seek  to  find  a 
sufficient  basis  in  the  development  of  rationality  in  the  child. 
One  most  important  phase  of  education  is  left  to  the  Church 
and  the  home,  neither  of  which  is  doing  much  to  meet  the 
demand. 

This  tendency  exists  along  with  another,  which  might 
seem  to  be  contradictory, — the  expansion  of  the  scope  of 
school  work.  Much  of  the  work  recently  included  within 
the  scope  of  schoolroom  instruction  is  yet  inadequately 
organized  and  hence  indifferently  presented.  Unsatisfactory 
results  follow.  But  undoubtedly  the  need  is  simply  for  more 
experience.  What  new  social  conditions  have  demanded, 
new  school  conditions  must  supply.  The  work  of  the  school 


T/te  Present  Eclectic   Tendency  751 

can  no  longer  be  restricted  to  the  merest  rudiments  or  instru- 
ments of  learning ;  what  is  now  demanded  are  the  rudiments 
of  living,  the  instruments  needed  for  successful  life  in  com- 
plex modern  civilization.  The  most  prominent  phase  of  this 
tendency  of  the  present  is  the  incorporation  of  the  industrial 
element  in  all  school  work.  This  argues  a  radical  reshaping 
of  our  idea  of  education  as  well  as  of  the  instructing  process. 
Education  is  to  be  broader,  schoolroom  instruction  more 
helpful,  more  immediately  practical,  more  directly  related  to 
conduct,  and  hence  more  moral.  Whether  this  is  a  great 
concession  to  materialism  or  not,  cannot  be  discussed  here ; 
whether  it  is,  in  any  individual  case,  depends  for  the  most 
part  on  the  teacher.  This  new  tendency  which  bids  fair  to 
increase  far  beyond  present  experience  is  wholly  in  answer 
to  new  social  demands.  And  society  must  accompany  these 
demands  with  a  corresponding  service,  —  liberality  in  the 
support  of  education  greater  than  ever  shown  before.  The 
expenditures  for  education  in  the  present  are  unprecedented ; 
but  they  are  not  to  be  a  precedent  for  the  future ;  the  tend- 
ency is  toward  much  greater  expenditures  in  the  future. 
And  if  much  more  is  given,  much  more  will  be  required. 

Thus  the  movements  characteristic  of  the  past,  which  we 
have  sketched  in  greater  detail,  are  working  themselves  out 
in  these  tendencies  of  the  present. 

HARMONIZATION  OF  INTEREST  AND  EFFORT.  — The 

eclectic  character  of  present  educational  thought  and  practice 
is  shown  not  only  by  the  fusion  of  the  psychological,  scientific, 
and  sociological  views  of  education,  but  also  by  the  endeavor 
made  to  unify  in  theory  and  in  schoolroom  procedure  the 
elements  of  interest  and  effort.  The  long  period  of  peace, 
during  which  the  conception  of  education  as  effort  or  as  a 
discipline  prevailed,  was  succeeded  by  a  period  of  conflict 
between  the  idea  of  education  as  discipline  and  the  idea  of 
education  as  a  natural  process  determined  wholly  by  the 


752  History  of  Education 

interests  of  the  child.  Both  practical  experience  and  further 
heoretical  investigation  are  showing  that  the  interpretation 
of  education  from  the  point  of  view  of  interest  is  as  partial 
as  the  old  interpretation  of  education  as  discipline;  conse- 
quently the  present  tendency  is  one  of  reconciliation,  of  har- 
monization of  interest  and  effort,  as  the  basis  of  educational 
practice.  The  period  of  conflict  occupied  the  second  half  of 
the  eighteenth  and  practically  all  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  period  of  reconciliation  of  the  two  conceptions  in  our 
own  country  is  practically  that  of  the  present  generation. 

Interest  is  essential  as  the  starting  point  of  the  educative 
process ;  effort  is  essential  as  its  outcome.  The  purpose  of 
appealing  to  the  interest  of  the  child  is  to  lead  him  to  the 
point  where  he  will  put  forth  effort  to  master  the  unsolved 
problems,  the  undetermined  relationships  of  his  environment, 
whether  of  the  schoolroom  or  of  life.  The  object  of  the  old 
education  of  effort  was  to  develop  in  the  child  the  power  of 
voluntary  attention,  of  application,  of  strength  of  will,  that 
would  enable  him  to  overcome  the  obstacles  or  to  accomplish 
the  tasks  of  each  day's  experience.  The  object  of  the  new 
education  of  reconciliation  is  to  reach  the  same  end  through 
immediate  appeal  to  spontaneous  attention  and  to  the  native 
interests  of  the  child.  The  old,  like  Aristotle's  solution 
(p.  152),  was  valid  only  for  the  comparatively  few  who  were 
of  such  native  ability  as  to  profit  by  the  training ;  the  new,  by 
building  upon  the  essentials  of  human  nature  itself,  seeks  to 
secure  that  development  for  all.  In  both,  the  purpose  is  to 
produce  that  motivation  in  moral  judgment  and  that  power 
of  accomplishment  in  action,  the  combination  of  which  is 
character.  The  aim  of  the  new,  no  less  than  of  the  old,  is  to 
produce  "that  making  in  the  selection  of  the  good  and  the 
rejection  of  the  evil  which  we  call  character"  (p.  631). 

Neither  interest  nor  effort  is  an  end  in  itself ;  neither  inter- 
est nor  effort  alone  is  a  sufficient  guide  to  the  educative 
process.  Interest  is  the  condition  of  mind  arising  out  of  the 


The  Present  Eclectic   Tendency  753 

child's  own  powers  and  needs  in  response  to  stimuli  from  his 
environment;  effort  is  the  other  side  of  the  same  situation 
and  represents  the  discharge  in  response  to  the  stimuli,  —  a 
response  that  calls  for  a  greater  expenditure  of  energy  than 
can  be  sustained  by  the  original  exciting  interest.  What  is 
aimed  at  in  education  through  a  use  of  or  combination  of 
both  interest  and  effort  is  the  production  of  a  type  of  mind, 
or  rather  of  the  whole  being  or  nature  of  an  individual,  that 
includes  power  of  rational  insight,  of  deliberation,  of  inde- 
pendence of  judgment,  of  firmness  of  decision,  and  of  effective 
action.  To  secure  this,  both  interest  and  effort  must  be  de- 
pended upon  or  called  forth  in  the  educative  process. 

The  problem  of  the  schoolroom,  then,  is  neither  by  author- 
ity to  hold  the  child  to  the  mastery  of  certain  tasks  which 
are  uninteresting  in  themselves  and  from  which  his  attention 
is  withdrawn  the  moment  the  external  pressure  is  removed, 
and  thus  to  develop  will  power  and  moral  character ;  nor,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  it  the  work  of  the  school  so  to  surround 
the  needed  activities  or  learning  processes  with  factitious 
interests  as  to  sugar  coat  the  pills  of  schoolroom  tasks.  The 
harmonization  of  the  problem  of  effort  and  interest  consists  in 
so  relating  the  tasks  of  the  schoolroom  to  the  real  life  and 
activities  of  the  child,  by  drawing  them  directly  from  the  life 
activities  of  the  child  and  of  society,  that  he  grows  into  his 
fuller  adult  self  through  assimilation  into  his  own  personality 
of  that  which  is,  and  which  he  recognizes  to  be,  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  life  of  society  around  him.  This  activity  is 
effort ;  interest  consists  in  arousing  in  the  child  the  realiza- 
tion of  its  vital  relation  to  his  own  life.  Personality  is 
expanded  and  character  developed  as  this  possible  relation- 
ship is  developed  into  a  normal  and  an  abiding  reality  in  the 
life  of  the  individual. 

THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION,  as  conceived  in  the 
present,  is  found  in  this  harmonization  of  interest  and  effort 


754  History  of  Education 

This  is  but  another  attempt  to  solve  the  problem  of  the 
individual  and  of  society,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  has  been 
the  educational  problem  as  it  has  been  the  ethical  problem, 
from  the  beginning  of  human  life.  How  is  the  individual 
to  be  educated  so  as  to  secure  the  full  development  of  per- 
sonality and  at  the  same  time  preserve  the  stability  of  insti- 
tutional life  and  assist  in  its  evolution  to  a  higher  state  ? 
It  is  the  old  problem  of  relating  the  one  and  the  many ;  of 
securing  individual  liberty  and  social  justice.  Interest  and 
effort  give  in  modern  form  Aristotle's  problem  of  well-being 
and  well-doing.  Interest,  representing  the  emphasis  or  the 
factor  of  individualism,  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  naturalistic 
movement  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  the  education  of  effort 
is  the  survival  in  conservative  circles  of  the  old  education  of 
authority  expressive  of  the  religious  and  social  views  preva- 
lent since  the  Reformation  period.  These  views  have  sur- 
vived longest  in  educational  institutions  that  are  controlled 
by  religious  denominations  or  by  certain  dominant  classes  in 
society,  as  in  the  English  public  schools  and  universities. 

The  definitions  of  education  throughout  this  earlier  period 
were  given  in  terms  of  training  for  institutional  or  social  life 
(Chapter  IX).  The  definitions  of  education  acceptable  to  the 
new  thought  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  those  couched  in 
terms  of  individual  development,  as  that  of  Pestalozzi's 
(Chapter  XI). 

The  meaning  of  education,  as  at  present  conceived,  is 
found  in  the  attempt  to  combine  and  to  balance  these  two 
elements  of  individual  rights  and  social  duties,  of  personal 
development  and  social  service.  The  meaning  of  education 
in  the  present  finds  its  whole  significance  in  this  very  process 
of  relating  the  individual  to  society,  so  as  to  secure  develop- 
ment of  personality  and  social  welfare.  It  is  true  that  for 
the  last  two  decades  the  tendency  in  thought,  in  reaction  to 
the  extreme  emphasis  on  interest  and  on  individualism,  has 
been  to  stress  the  social  factor.  Education  has  been  defined 


The  Present  Eclectic  Tendency  755 

as  preparation  for  citizenship,  as  adjustment  to  society,  as 
preparation  for  life  in  institutions,  as  the  acquisition  of  the 
racial  inheritance. 

But  definitions  more  acceptable  to  present  thought  seek  to 
combine  both  factors  and  to  find  a  harmonization  of  them  in 
the  nature  of  the  educational  process.  Thus  Professor  James, 
from  the  psychological  and  hence  individualistic  point  of  view, 
defines  education  as  "  the  organization  of  acquired  habits  of 
action  such  as  will  fit  the  individual  to  his  physical  and 
social  environment."  President  Butler's  view  emphasizes  the 
sociological  view  but  gives  both  elements.  It  is  that  edu- 
cation is  the  "gradual  adjustment  of  the  individual  to  the 
spiritual  possessions  of  the  race."  These  factors  are  more 
closely  related  in  Professor  Home's  definition,  which  clearly 
reveals  this  eclectic  tendency  as  including  the  psychological, 
the  scientific,  and  the  sociological  elements  in  our  present 
thought  of  education.  This  definition  is  as  follows :  "  Edu- 
cation is  the  superior  adjustment  of  a  physically  and  men- 
tally developed  conscious  human  being  to  his  intellectual, 
emotional,  and  volitional  environment"  The  one  who  has 
done  more  than  any  one  else  to  elaborate  this  eclectic  view  of 
education  that  harmonizes  the  conflicting  ideas  of  the  old 
tendencies  and  in  whose  writings  a  fuller  presentation  of 
many  of  these  points  stated  will  be  found,  is  Professor  John 
Dewey.  He  defines  education  as  "  the  process  of  remaking 
experience,  giving  it  a  more  socialized  value  through  increased 
individual  experience,  by  giving  the  individual  better  control 
over  his  own  powers."  Here  both  individual  and  social 
factors  are  emphasized  and  harmonized.  From  whatever 
interest,  whether  practical  or  theoretical,  or  from  whatever 
line  of  investigation  the  problem  of  education  is  now  ap- 
proached, its  meaning  is  given  in  some  terms  of  this  harmon- 
ization of  social  and  individual  factors.  It  is  the  process  of 
conforming  the  individual  to  the  given  social  standard  or  type 
in  such  a  manner  that  his  inherent  capacities  are  developed, 


756  History  of  Education 

his  greatest  usefulness  and  happiness  obtained,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  the  highest  welfare  of  society  is  conserved 

THE  CURRICULUM. — As  interpreted  from  the  point  of  view 
of  this  new  meaning  of  education,  the  curriculum  is  no  longer 
a  sacred  inheritance,  possessing  absolute  and  permanent  valid- 
ity, the  contents  of  which  the  child  must  master  in  order  to 
attain  to  an  education  and  to  be  admitted  to  the  charmed 
circle  of  the  cultured.  The  curriculum  becomes  but  the 
epitomized  representation  to  the  child  of  this  cultural  inheri- 
tance of  the  race,  —  of  those  products  of  human  experience 
which  yet  enter  into  the  higher  and  better  life  of  man  and 
which  the  present  generation  esteems  to  be  of  value  to  the 
individual  and  of  worth  to  society  as  a  whole.  Such  an 
appraisement  of  the  values  of  life  must  change  from  genera- 
tion to  generation,  if  there  is  to  be  progress  in  life ;  if  life 
in  the  present  has  any  value  in  itself  beyond  mere  existence, 
culture  cannot  be  the  same  for  the  twentieth  century  that  it 
was  for  the  eighteenth.  The  formal  statement  of  the  ele- 
ments of  character  must  remain  much  the  same  ;  the  concrete 
content  must  vary  as  life  varies.  The  curriculum  must 
present  to  the  child  in  idealized  form,  present  life,  pres- 
ent social  activities,  present  ethical  aspirations,  present 
appreciation  of  the  cultural  value  of  the  past.  Only  as  a 
part  of  present  life,  that  is  only  as  it  touches  the  present 
life  of  the  child  through  the  life  of  society,  can  it  call  forth 
that  interest  which  is  essential  to  the  educative  process. 
Hence  as  a  result  of  the  historical  studies  we  have  pur- 
sued, it  appears  that  the  curriculum  must  be  adjusted  con- 
stantly, though  very  gradually,  so  as  to  reorganize  the  old 
culture  material  and  to  include  the  new.  The  curriculum 
is  the  child's  introduction  to  life,  as  schooling  is  the  prepa- 
ration for  it.  The  curriculum,  then,  must  really  introduce 
to  life  as  it  is  and  as  it  should  be ;  the  school  should  actually 
prepare. 


The  Present  Eclectic   Tendency  75? 

METHOD.  —  From  the  same  historical  point  of  view  the 
nature  of  method  is  more  readily  seen  and,  in  a  sense,  its 
function  simplified.  Method  is  the  process  of  using  this  cul-  ' 
ture  material  so  as  to  produce  the  desired  development  of  the 
child ;  a  development  which  will  include  the  expansion  of  his 
own  powers,  the  creation  of  control  over  them  and  the  direc- 
tion of  them  to  the  necessary,  to  the  useful,  and  to  helpful 
social  activities.  Method  is  the  regulation  of  this  process  by 
the  teacher.  Method  is  the  guidance  of  the  child  in  his  activi- 
ties by  the  teacher  so  that  he  may  incorporate  into  his  own 
experience  that  portion  of  the  experience  of  the  race  which, 
to  those  who  have  the  direction  of  his  education,  seems  valu- 
able; that  is,  suitable  for  his  stage  of  development  and 
similar  in  complexity  to  his  own  interests  and  activities.  The 
sole  effort  of  the  teacher  should  be  directed  toward  the 
guidance  of  this  process ;  his  sole  interest  should  be  in 
the  expanding  consciousness  of  the  child,  in  furnishing  expe- 
riences appropriate  to  the  power  of  the  child  and  properly 
related  to  his  interests  and  activities.  The  teacher  should  be 
so  equipped  by  previous  training  that  he  can  give  undivided 
attention  to  this  process.  Hence  the  necessity  of  method, 
as  the  term  is  ordinarily  used.  This  method  should  be  pos- 
sessed by  the  teacher,  but  it  is  of  most  value  when  most  un- 
consciously used.  Method  in  the  broader  sense  requires  upon 
the  part  of  the  teacher  a  knowledge  of  the  child ;  a  knowl- 
edge of  his  existing  interests,  activities,  and  possessions;  a 
mastery  of  the  material  or  the  subject-matter  dealt  with ;  an 
understanding  of  the  process  through  which  the  child  incorpo- 
rates the  novel  experience  into  his  own ;  and  an  ability  to  use 
and  to  make  subordinate  the  machinery  of  the  schoolroom  and 
the  technique  of  the  process  of  instruction.  This  last  alone 
is  considered  method  par  excellence,  but  it  is  only  one  phase 
of  method.  Thus,  this  broader  eclectic  view,  as  shown  by 
historic  survey,  includes  psychological  method,  scientific 
method,  sociological  method,  schoolroom  method  or  technique; 


History  of  Education 

and  all  should  be  considered  as  essential  in  the  preparation 
of  the  teacher  for  his  work. 

THE  PERMANENT  PROBLEM.— The  problem  of  education 
is  to  transmit  to  each  succeeding  generation  the  elements  of 
culture  and  of  institutional  life  that  have  been  found  to  be 
of  value  in  the  past,  with  that  additional  increment  of  culture 
which  the  existing  generation  has  succeeded  in  working  out  for 
itself  ;  to  do  this,  and  also  to  give  to  each  individual  the  fullest 
liberty  in  formulating  his  own  purposes  in  life  and  in  shaping 
these  to  his  own  activities.  The  problem  of  the  educator  is 
to  make  the  selection  of  this  material  that  is  essential  in  the 
life  of  the  individual  and  essential  to  the  perpetuity  and  prog- 
ress of  society,  to  construct  it  into  a  curriculum,  to  organ- 
ize an  institution  to  carry  on  this  great  process,  and  to 
formulate  the  rules  and  principles  of  procedure  which  will 
actually  accomplish  the  result.  The  problem  of  the  school 
is  to  take  the  material  selected  by  the  educator,  to  incorpo- 
rate it  into  the  life  of  each  member  of  the  coming  generation 
so  as  to  fit  him  into  the  social  life  of  the  times,  to  enable  him 
to  contribute  to  it  and  to  better  it,  and  to  develop  in  him  that 
highest  of  all  personal  possessions  and  that  essential  of  a  life 
satisfactory  to  his  fellows  and  happy  in  itself,  which  we 
term  character.  Character  in  this  sense  demands  on  the 
part  of  the  individual  a  knowledge  of  the  best  of  the  past 
and  the  present  upon  which  to  base  rational  action ;  sym- 
pathy for  one's  fellows  and  a  good  will  that  will  give 
the  proper  motive  to  conduct;  and  a  power  of  accomplish- 
ment, of  turning  ideas  and  motives  into  deeds,  that  will 
make  efficient  members  of  society.  The  problem  of  society 
is  to  maintain  this  expanded  work  of  education  liberally  and 
effectively  and  by  more  generous  support  to  remove  the 
teaching  profession  from  those  competitive  conditions  which 
tend  to  bring  its  efficiency  to  the  lowest  rather  than  the 
highest  standards  and  which  tend  to  base  the  remuneration  and 


The  Present  Eclectic   Tendency  759 

social  reward  of  the  teacher  upon  such  conditions  as  pre- 
vail in  the  workshop  and  the  market  rather  than  upon 
those  which  operate  in  the  professions.  Based  upon  his 
knowledge  of  this  culture  product  of  life  and  of  the  method 
of  incorporating  it  into  the  lives  of  the  young  —  in  other 
words,  of  teaching,  —  guided  by  sympathy  for  the  child 
and  good  will  for  society,  produced  by  his  own  training 
and  the  result  of  his  own  experience,  the  problem  of  the 
teacher  is  to  develop  character  in  the  child  out  of  the  mate- 
rial and  the  processes  furnished  by  the  school. 

To  do  this,  year  after  year,  with  each  individual  of  the 
group  which  falls  to  his  or  her  lot  is  the  ever  solving,  but 
never  solved,  problem  of  education. 


INDEX 


Abelard,  method  of,  301 ;  doctrine  of,  303 ; 
at  Paris,  313,  324. 

Academy,  school  for  Athenian  youth,  84; 
Plato's,  164  f. ;  in  England,  499 ;  study 
of  science  in,  692,  698 ;  in  America, 

S°o.  735- 

Adjustment,  education  as,  in  primitive  so- 
ciety, 7,  12  f. ;  in  Greece,  52  f. ;  in  Pes- 
talozzi's  theory,  602;  in  Froebel's,  650, 
658;  in  sociological  view,  720,  721. 

^Emilius,  brought  library  to  Rome,  203. 

^Esthetic  element  in  Renaissance,  369,  372. 

Agricola,  Rudolph,  377. 

Aim  in  education,  of  primitive  peoples,  5, 
7;  of  Chinese,  18  f.,  41  f.;  of  Greek, 
52,  68  f.,  97 ;  according  to  Socrates,  126 ; 
Plato,  132 ;  Aristotle,  147  f. ;  of  Roman, 
185,  193;  of  early  Christian,  230;  of 
monasticism,  245;  of  mysticism,  280; 
of  chivalry,  291 ;  of  scholasticism, 
294,  299;  of  Renaissance,  365  f. ;  of 
humanism,  371  f. ;  of  Vittorino  da 
Feltre's  school,  376;  according  to 
Sturm,  392;  of  Reformation,  405  f. ; 
of  Jesuits,  429;  of  Port  Royalists, 
431;  of  realism,  442  f . ;  according  to 
Milton,  449;  Montaigne,  454  f. ;  Bacon, 
473;  Comenius,  482;  of  disciplina- 
rians, 508;  according  to  Locke,  512  f. ; 
of  rationalism,  546;  according  to 
Rousseau,  549,  573;  Basedow,  580; 
Pestalozzi,  594,  610  ff.;  Kant,  595; 
Herbart,  624  f.,  708;  Froebel,  639, 
647  f-.  653,  658;  Spencer,  686;  Hux- 
ley, 692 ;  sociological  interpretation  of, 
707  ff. ;  eclectic  interpretation  of,  753  f. 

Albertus  Magnus,  305,  330. 

Alcuin,  260,  261 ;  influence  of,  upon  sub- 
ject-matter, 268  ;  knowledge  of,  272 ;  at 
court  of  Charlemagne,  275 ;  at  Tours, 
273,  277  f. ;  writings  of,  278. 

Alexander,  the  means  of  spreading  Greek 
culture,  161  f. 

Alexander  of  Hales,  305,  330. 


Alexandria,  university  at,  169  f.;  school 
of  catechumens  at,  233. 

Ancestral  worship,  rise  of,  7  f. 

Andronicus,  a  teacher  at  Rome,  194. 

Animism,  dominant  characteristic  of  primi- 
tive life,  2  f. 

Anselm,  293, 302. 

Anfisthenes,  165. 

Antoninus  Pius,  work  of,  205. 

Apperception  of  Herbart,  623,  627  f. 

Aquinas,  Summa  of,  299;  influence  of, 
305;  a  Dominican,  330. 

Arabs,  study  of  Grecian  philosophy  among, 
332  ;  influence  of,  upon  subject-matter, 

333- 

Archimedes,  work  of,  at  Alexandria,  171. 

Aristophanes,  teaching  of,  123. 

Aristotle,  compared  to  Plato,  147,  152  f. ; 
educational  theory  of,  99,  148  f. ;  scien- 
tific method  of,  154,  158  ;  dialectic  of, 
162  ;  Lyceum  of,  164  ;  manuscripts  of, 
170  ;  method  of,  at  Alexandria,  170  ; 
translations  of  works  of,  269,  333  ;  in- 
fluence of,  on  scholasticism,  296,  298, 
3°5.  307 1  on  universities,  324 ;  on 
Dante,  343  ;  place  of,  in  Renaissance, 
351  f.  ;  in  Reformation,  405  ;  psy- 
chology of,  507,  526,  590. 

Arts,  Seven  Liberal,  268;  content  of,  271  f. ; 
Alcuin's  conception  of,  278;  interpreta- 
tion of,  by  Dante,  345. 

Asceticism,  principles  of,  245,  246  ;  ideals 
of,  248  f. 

Ascham,  382  f.,  388,  392. 

Athenaeum,  establishment  of,  204. 

Athenian  education,  Ideals  of,  80,  105  ; 
organization  of,  81  f.  ;  stages  of,  83  f., 
87,  115  ;  content  of,  87  f.,  115  f.  ; 
Age  of  Pericles  in,  102  ff.  ;  influence 
of  philosophers  on,  108  ;  of  Soph- 
ists, 112  f.  ;  results  of,  117  ;  theorists 
in,  120  ff.  ;  cosmopolitan  period  of, 
160  ff. 

Athens,  University  of,  167  f. 


761 


762 


Index 


Augustine,  St.,  attitude  of,  toward  classical 

learning,  242  ;  writings  of,  268. 
Augustus,  founder  of  libraries,  203. 
Ausonius,  as  teacher,  215. 

Bacon,  F.,  relation  of,  to  Renaissance,  356; 
influence  of,  on  education,  464,  468  If., 
497;  on  Comenius,483;  religious  posi- 
tion of,  506 ;  psychology  of,  507 ;  relation 
of,  to  Locke,  512,  520 ;  to  Spencer,  689 ; 
to  Huxley,  689  ;  to  sociological  move- 
ment, 719. 

Bacon,  Roger,  327,  330. 

Baptiste,  Jean,  work  of,  437. 

Barnard,  quoted,  723. 

Barzizza,  colaborer  of  Petrarch,  360 ;  teach- 
ing of,  376,  387. 

Basedow,  influenced  by  Rousseau,  577  ;  by 
Bacon,  579  ;  by  Comenius,  579  ;  work 
and  influence  of,  577  f.,  722  ;  compared 
to  later  reformers,  582,  621. 

Basil,  St,  teaching  of,  239  f.  ;  as  founder 
of  monasticism,  247. 

Bell,  monitorial  system  of,  724  f. 

Benedict,  St.,  work  of,  248,  254,  259  f. 

Bible,  in  vernacular,  408  ;  in  schools,  750. 

Biot,  quoted,  23. 

Blow,  Susan,  673.        , 

Boccaccio,  360,  375,  386,  387. 

Boethius,  writings  of,  269,  324. 

Bologna,  University  of,  316,  318,  339  ; 
nations  in,  320. 

Bonaventura,  305. 

Brethren,  of  Common  Life,  390  ;  of  Chris- 
tian Schools,  437. 

Burgdorf,  Pestalozzi  at,  607  f.,  614  ;  influ- 
ence of  school  at,  667. 

Burgher,  schools,  338 ;  merged  into  gym- 
nasien,  390. 

Butcher,  quoted,  53,  59. 

Butler,  quoted,  755. 

Calvin,  John,  work  of,  410. 

Cambridge,  University  of,  316  ;  migration 
from  Oxford  to,  319  ;  as  a  Reformation 
center,  418  ;  realism  in,  502  ;  study  of 
science  at,  693. 

Campe,  influence  of  Rousseau  upon,  577 ; 
work  of,  579,  583  ;  writings  of,  for  chil- 
dren, 583. 

Capella,  writings  of,  268. 

Carlyle,  quoted,  527. 

Carvilius,  teacher  at  Rome,  194, 


Cassiodorus,  influence  of,  upon  monasti 
cism,  254  ;  upon  subject-matter,  268  ; 
writings  of,  270. 

Caste  system,  as  step  in  educational  pro- 
cess, 7;  in  China,  47. 

Catechetical,  schools,  233. 

Catechumenal,  schools,  232. 

Cathedral,  schools,  234,  334,  338. 

Chantry,  schools,  338. 

Character  building.  See  Moral  training 
and  Aim. 

Charles  the  Great,  work  of,  274  S, 

Cheever,  Ezekiel,  396. 

Cheke,  382. 

Child,  as  a  factor  in  education,  571,  626, 
748 ;  study  of,  592,  602 ;  self-activity  of, 
618;  in  Froebel's  theory,  639  f.,  655; 
in  Realists'  theory,  462  f. 

Chinese  education,  aim  of,  17,  22;  as  an 
Oriental  type,  23,  46  f. ;  system  of,  23  f., 
34 ;  introduction  of  Western  ideas  into, 
25 ;  content  of,  26 ;  method  and  results 
of,  39  f. ;  examinations  in ,  34 f. ;  criticism 
of,  42, 49 ;  comparison  of,  with  modern, 

43- 

Chivalry,  as  a  type  of  education,  284  ff. ; 
compared  with  monasticism  and  mysti- 
cism, 285;  origin  of,  285  f.;  ideals  of, 
286  f. ;  educational  system  of,  289 ;  limi- 
tations of,  352. 

Christianity,  problem  of  individual  in,  222; 
Greek  influence  upon,  223;  Roman 
influence  upon,  224 ;  influence  of,  upon 
world  of  thought,  227 ;  upon  world  of 
action,  228  f. ;  a  schooling,  230  f.  See 
also  Church. 

Chrysoloras,  teacher  of  Greek,  360,  376. 

Chrysostom,  quoted,  240. 

Church,  Christian,  influence  of  Plato  on, 
146;  decline  of  early,  211;  method  in 
early,  224;  attitude  of,  toward  ancient 
learning,  235  ff.;  intolerance  of,  258; 
influence  of,  upon  chivalry,  286 ;  upon 
universities,  321 ;  upon  burgher  schools, 
339;  effect  of  Renaissance  upon.  402; 
control  of,  in  schools,  408, 416, 418, 419, 
435-  436-  437.  732.  7341  disciplinary 
education  of,  528 ;  rationalism  and,  ^  • 
work  of,  in  modern  education,  750.  Set 
also  Monasticism  and  Reformation. 

Cicero,  representative  of  Greek  influence 
at  Rome,  192;  influence  of,  356  j$6, 
a66-  373  f.,  384.  387.  392,  42S- 


Index 


763 


Ciceronianism,  372  f. ;  in  universities,  387 ; 

in  Jesuit  schools,  425. 
Cistercian  Order,  rules  of,  253. 
Citizenship.    See  Sociological  tendency. 
Clement,  233,  238. 
Clisthenes,  103. 
Colet,  382,  388,  393,  419. 
Columbia  University,  694  f. 
Columella,  influence  of,  on  Comenius,  483. 
Combe,  work  of,  679,  698. 
Comenius,  leader   in    Reformation,  409; 

work  of,  480  ff.,  497;  religious  position 

of,  506;   contrasted  with  Locke,  518, 

520,  521. 
Compulsory  education,  in   Luther's  plan, 

412;  in  Weimar,  434;  in  France,  732; 

in  America,  738. 
Comte,  founder  of  science  of  sociology, 

716. 

Concentration  of  studies,  636. 
Conceptualism,  content  of,  303. 
Confucianism,  17  f. 
Constantine,  enactments  of,  favorable  to 

teachers,  205. 

Content  of  education.  See  Subject-matter. 
Copernicus,  327. 

Cornell,  scientific  tendency  in,  696. 
Cornish,  quoted,  285,  286,  288. 
Correlation  of  studies,  635. 
Cousin,  report  of,  669. 
Crates,  first  Greek  teacher  at  Rome,  194. 
Creed,  Nicene,  223;  multiplication  of,  in 

sixteenth  century,  405. 
Crusades,  influence  of,  on  scholasticism, 

293.  3S2!  on   Renaissance,  352.      See 

also  Chivalry. 
Culture,  spread  of  Greek,  178  f. ;  realistic 

conception  of,  452  f. ;  scientific  concep- 
tion of,  679  f.,  682,  690  f.,  748. 
Culture  epoch  theory,  of  Herbart,  635 ;  of 

Froebelians,  650. 

Curriculum.    See  Subject-matter. 
Cynosarges,  school  of,  at  Athens,  84. 

Dancing,  purpose  of,  in  Greek  education, 

96. 

Dante,  327,  342  f.,  357. 
Davidson,  quoted,  268,  520. 
De  Garmo,  quoted,  627. 
Degree,  university,  nature  of,  321-323. 
Descartes,  relation  of,  to  Renaissance,  356; 

religious  position  of,  506;  psychology 

of,  591- 


Development,  education  as,  in  Greek  the- 
ory, 53  f;  in  Locke's,  513;  in  Rous- 
seau's, 544,  560 ;  in  psychological  view, 
588;  in  Pestalozzi's  theory,  593,  611  f. ; 
in  Herbart's,  625 f.;  in  Froebel's,  640, 
650  f.  See  also  Evolution  and  Nature. 

Dewey,  quoted,  755. 

Dialectic,  according  to  Socrates,  126;  to 
Plato,  127,  132,  133;  as  a  type  of 
higher  education,  133;  according  to 
Aristotle,  158 ;  in  rhetorical  schools, 
162;  schools  of,  164 ;  Tertullian's  opin- 
ion of,  241;  nonprogressiveness  of  the 
method  of,  310 ;  in  Reformation  period, 
406;  of  German  universities,  418. 

Diesterweg,  quoted,  615. 

Diocletian,  removal  of  capital  from  Rome 
by,  212. 

Dionysius,  influence  upon  mysticism,  282. 

Disciplinary-tendency  in  education,  factors 
contributing  to,  505  ff.  ;  meaning  of, 
507;  representatives  of,  512;  in  the 
schools,  523 ;  in  England,  523 ;  in  Ger- 
many, 527  ;  in  America,  529, 696 ;  com- 
pared to  naturalistic  tendency,  566; 
struggle  of,  with  scientific  tendency, 
696. 

Dominicans,  founding  of,  330. 

Donatus,  Latin  grammar  of,  200,  214, 323. 

Eclectic  tendency  in  education,  character- 
istics of,  747 ;  fusion  of  previous  tend- 
encies in,  747  f.;  outlook  of,  749  f.; 
unity,  interest  and  effort  in,  751  f. ; 
meaning  of  education  in,  754  f. ;  curric- 
ulum in,  756 ;  method  in,  757. 

Effort,  theory  of,  in  education,  566, 569,  588, 

751  f- 

Egypt,  48 ;  birthplace  of  monasticism,  247. 
See  also  Alexandria. 

Elementary  education,  in  China,  28  f. ;  in 
Greece,  81  f.,  116;  in  Rome,  193  f., 
195  f. ;  under  Charlemagne,  276 ;  in 
fourteenth  century,  338 ;  in  relation  to 
Reformation,  408;  Zwingli's  work  for, 
410;  in  Germany,  433;  in  Scotland, 
436;  in  Holland,  436;  in  France,  437, 
732;  in  America,  529;  emphasis  upon, 
593;  science  in,  700  f.;  in  England, 

733- 
Eliot,  representative  of  scientific  tendency 

684,  696. 
Empiricism,  Locke's  formulation  of,  512. 


764 


Index 


England,  promotion  of  education  in,  435 ; 
academy  in,  499;  realism  in,  499;  dis- 
ciplinary view  in,  523;  influence  of 
Rousseau  upon,  576;  kindergarten 
in,  672;  influence  of  Pestalozzi  in, 
668;  science  study  in,  692  f.,  698,  701 ; 
monitorial  system  in,  724  f.;  infant 
schools  in,  726  f. ;  free  schools  in, 
733  f. ;  industrial  training  in,  741  f. 

Enlightenment,  type  of  formalism,  537. 
See  also  Rationalism. 

Ennius,  194. 

Environment.    See  Adjustment. 

Ephebi,  training  of,  75,  85,  168. 

Epicurus,  165. 

Erasmus,  a  humanist,  362  f.,  409,  445;  at- 
tack of,  upon  Ciceronians,  372 ;  work  of, 
378  f.,  388  ;  text-books  of,  394. 

Erfurt,  University  of,  387. 

Ernst  the  Pious,  work  of,  435. 

Eton,  527. 

Euclid,  work  of,  at  Alexandria,  171. 

Euripides,  quoted,  101. 

Evolution,  education  as  a  phase  of,  651, 721 ; 
Lamarck's  views  of,  653;  relation  of 
self-activity  to,  655.  See  also  Develop- 
ment. 

Examinations,  systems  of,  in  China,  34-38. 

Faculties,  in  university,  320  f. ;  in  psychol- 
ogy. 5°9.  5".  S6/. 6a6- 

Family,  place  of,  in  primitive  education,  6 ; 
in  Chinese  education,  23, 47 ;  in  Spartan, 
79;  in  Athenian,  81  f.,  185;  in  Roman, 
185  f. ;  in  Luther's  scheme,  412;  in 
Rousseau's,  560.  See  also  Home. 

Federn,  quoted,  346. 

Fellenberg,  conception  of,  as  to  value  of 
industrial  training,  662;  at  Hofwyl, 
723  f. ;  influence  in  America,  723. 

Flint,  quoted,  534, 545. 

Formalism,  of  Greek  philosophical  schools, 
166;  of  scholasticism,  292  ff. ;  of  Re- 
naissance, 364,  386;  of  Reformation, 
405 ;  religious,  533 ;  rationalistic,  537. 

Fouillee,  quoted,  509. 

France,  religious  schools  in,  430  ff;  ele- 
mentary education  in,  437,  731 ;  Rous- 
seau in,  575;  kindergarten  in,  672; 
influence  of  Pestalozzi  in,  668 ;  science 
study  in,  692 ;  free  schools  in,  731  f. ; 
industrial  education  in,  741. 

Franciscans,  founding  of,  330. 


Francke,  exponent    of  pietism,    498-,    a 

Halle,  501 ;   philanthropic   institutions 

of,  722. 
Franklin,  500;    exponent  of  sociological 

tendency,  712. 
Free  schools.     See  State. 
Friars.    See  Monks. 
Froebel,  symbolism  of,  284,  646,  649,  652, 

658;    Rousseau's  influence  upon,  572; 

compared   to   Basedow,  582;    life  and 

work  of,  593,  639  ff.,  671  ff.,  744,  748; 

social  aspect  of  theory  of,  709  f. 
Frye,  quoted,  589. 
Fulda,  monastery  of,  278. 
Furnival,  quoted,  -291. 
Furstenschuien,  389,  410. 

Games,  in  Athenian  schools,  83,  89;  in 
Renaissance,  368,  377;  in  Froebel's 
scheme,  661,  666  ;  in  Mulcaster's,  466. 

Germany,  Luther's  work  in,  410;  free 
schools  in,  407,  433,  730;  real  schools 
in,  498 ;  disciplinary  education  in,  527 ; 
influence  of  Rousseau  upon,  577; 
kindergarten  in,  672;  influence  of 
Pestalozzi  upon,  667  f.;  of  Herbart, 
670;  science  study  in,  692,  697,  700; 
sociological  tendency  in,  711  f. ;  indus- 
trial training  in,  742. 

Gibbon,  quoted,  276. 

Gladstone,  quoted,  65. 

Gnosticism,  origin  of,  172;  belief  of,  246; 
suppressed  in  Eastern  Church,  332. 

Godwin,  quoted,  577. 

Goliardi.    See  Scholar. 

Gottingen,  University  of,  501 ;  Herbart  at, 
625. 

Grammaticus,  school,  194,  198-200;  com- 
pared to  rhetorical,  200;  in  Roman 
provinces,  204,  212. 

Gratian,  educational  influence  of,  205,  215. 

Greek,  literature  in  Middle  Ages,  272; 
language  in  Middle  Ages,  272;  in 
Renaissance  period,  354,  360;  in  the 
universities,  386-388;  in  gymnasien, 
392;  in  Luther's  scheme,  412;  as 
a  discipline,  524;  in  Herbart's  theory, 

635. 

Greek  education,  conception  of,  52;  in- 
dividualism of,  52  ff. ;  idea  of  develop- 
ment in,  53  f. ;  significance  of,  58  f. ; 
limitations  of,  59, 100;  Homeric  period 
of,  62  f. ;  period  of  Old,  67  ff. ;  of  New 


Index 


765 


102  ff. ;  theorists  of,  120  ff. ;  of  cosmo- 
politan period,  160  if. ;  Roman  educa- 
tion an  aspect  of,  172 ;  influence  of,  upon 
Roman,  191,  194  f.,  197 ;  compared  to 
modern,  88,  750.  See  also  Athenian 
and  Spartan  education. 

Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  teaching  of,  239. 

Grocyn,  382,  388. 

Guarino,  Battista,  quoted,  370;  as  a 
teacher,  376. 

Gui  Ids,  of  wandering  scholars,  336 ;  schools 
of  merchant,  338. 

Gymnasien,  type  of  humanistic  school, 
390 ;  origin  of,  416 ;  organization  of,  419 ; 
in  the  Saxony  plan,  433 ;  type  of  disci- 
plinary school,  528 ;  study  of  science  in, 
697. 

Gymnastics.    See  Physical  education. 

Hadrian,  204  f. 

Hallam,  quoted,  308. 

Halle,  University  of,  501 ;  center  of  realism, 

501. 

Hamilton,  views  of,  on  education,  511  f. 
Harris,   scheme    of,    for   coordination    of 

studies,  636 ;  work  of,  for  kindergartens, 

673- 

Hartley,  psychology  of,  591. 

Harvard,  study  of  science  at,  693,  695, 
696. 

Hegel,  596. 

Hegius,  Alexander,  377. 

Heidelberg,  University  of,  387. 

Helmstadt,  University  of,  417. 

Herbart,  Rousseau's  influence  upon,  572  ; 
compared  to  Basedow,  582  ;  psychology 
of,  591, 625  f.  ;  relation  of,  to  Pestalozzi, 
622  f.  ;  life  and  works  of,  624  ff.  ; 
compared  to  Froebel,  639  f.  ;  influence 
of,  upon  schools,  670,  748;  utilitarian- 
ism of,  687;  sociological  aspect  of 
theory  of,  708  f. 

Hieronymians,  schools  of,  390  ;  influence 
of,  on  Jesuits,  397. 

Higher  education,  in  China,  31,  34  ;  in 
Greece,  115, 133, 166  ff.  ;  at  Alexandria, 
170  ;  in  Rome,  195,  201  f.  ;  catechetical 
schools  a  type  of,  233  ;  scholasticism  a 
method  of,  307  ;  friars  in  control  of, 
330  ;  Jesuit  work  for,  422. 

Hobbes,  quoted,  307  ;  psychology  of,  591. 

Hofwyl,  school  at,  723  f. 

Holland,  schools  in,  436. 


Home,  center  of  Roman  education,  185  ; 
minimized  in  Greek,  185  ;  in  earl) 
Roman,  192  ;  in  early  Christian,  233  ; 
place  of,  in  present  education,  750.  Set 
also  Family. 

Horace,  quoted,  186. 

Home,  quoted,  511,  735. 

Humanism,  representatives  of,  375  f.  ; 
educational  conception  of,  370-372  ;  as 
represented  by  Ciceronianism,  372  ;  in 
Italy,  375-377  ;  in  Germany,  377  ;  in 
England,  382  ;  types  of  schools  of 
385  ff.,  410  ;  control  of  schools  of,  418  ; 
relation  of,  to  realism,  444. 

Humanities,  definition  of,  370. 

Huss,  327. 

Huxley,  representative  of  scientific  tend- 
ency, 679,  684  ;  theory  of,  689  f. 

Ideas,  of  Plato,  131 ;  of  Aristotle,  149 ;  of 
Comenius,  486 ;  of  Herbart,  627. 

Imitation.    See  Method. 

India,  caste  system  of,  48. 

Individual,  in  primitive  education,  6  ;  in 
Chinese,  41  f.  ;  in  Greek,  52  ff.,  66, 
72  f.,  loo  f.,  113,  118  ;  in  Plato's 
scheme,  133  ;  in  philosophical  schools, 
166  ;  during  Middle  Ages,  341  ;  in 
Renaissance,  352  f.,  360  ;  in  human- 
ism, 371,  389  ;  in  Reformation,  407  ; 
in  Jesuit  plan,  428  f.  ;  in  naturalistic 
theory,  538  ;  in  Rousseau's  theory,  555, 
573  I  Pestalozzi's,  593,  620  ;  Herbart's, 
630  ;  Froebel's,  648  f.,  656  ;  Spencer's, 
686  ;  in  sociological  view,  711,  715  ;  in 
eclectic  view,  754. 

Industrial  education,  in  monastic  schools, 
252  ;  in  Rousseau's  scheme,  563,  662  ; 
in  Basedow's,  582  ;  at  Neuhof,  602  ;  in 
Froebel's  scheme,  662  f.  ;  in  Pesta- 
lozzi's, 662  ;  at  Hofwyl,  723,  743  ;  at 
the  present  time,  741  f. 

Infant  schools,  726  f. 

Instruction,  as  a  method,  in  Roman  edu- 
cation, 190  ;  in  disciplinary  education, 
515  ;  in  Pestalozzi's  scheme,  611,  621  ; 
in  Herbart's,  623,  627,  631  f. ;  in  Froe- 
bel's, 641,  656,  660. 

Interest,  theory  of,  in  Rousseau's  scheme. 
566,  569  ;  in  psychological  movement, 
588  ;  in  Herbart's  scheme,  633  f.  ;  in 
American  colleges,  696  ;  in  relation  to 
effort,  751  £ 


;66 


Index 


Isidore,  writings  of,  271. 
Isocrates,  163  f. 

Italy,  Renaissance  in,  357  t ;  humanists 
of,  375- 

James,  quoted,  755. 

Jansenism,  533,  534. 

Japanese,  49. 

Jebb,  quoted,  379. 

Jefferson,  exponent  of  sociological  tend- 
ency, 713  f. 

Jena,  University  of,  417. 

Jerome,  St.,  attitude  toward  classics,  242 ; 
originator  of  monasticism  at  Rome, 
247. 

Jesuits,  influence  of  Hieronymians  on, 
39°>  397!  schools  of,  396,  420;  history 
of,  403,  421,  428  ;  method  of,  433. 

John  of  Salisbury,  quoted,  310. 

Johnson,  Dr.,  quoted,  385. 

Julian,  effort  of,  to  eliminate  Christian 
teachers  from  Rome,  206;  revival  of 
influence  of  Platonism  under,  214. 

Jullien,  quoted,  200. 

Juvenal,  quoted,  187. 

Kant,  work  of,  595 ;  utilitarianism  of,  687 ; 

social  aspect  of  philosophy  of,  710. 
Keilhau,  Froebel's  work  at,  643. 
Kindergarten,  Froebel's  work  for,  639,  641, 

645 ;  first  at  Blankenburg,  645 ;  play  in, 

662,  666;  work  of,  665 f.;  spread  of, 

672  f. 

Knox,  John,  work  of,  410. 
KQnigsberg,  University  of,  417 ;  Herbart  at, 

625. 
Krusi,  at  Burgdorf,  614. 

La  Bruyere,  quoted,  544. 

Lactantius,  240. 

Lancaster,  monitorial  system  of,  724  f. ;  in- 
fluence of,  in  America,  725. 

Latimer,  at  Cambridge,  418. 

Latin,  revival  of,  354,  360;  in  humanistic 
education,  374,  444;  method  of  study 
of,  384;  in  gymnasien,39i;  in  Luther's 
plan,  412;  in  Port  Royal  schools,  432; 
Mulcaster's  estimate  of,  466  f. ;  Ratke's 
method  of,  478;  Comenius's  method  of, 
487,  490;  decline  of  utility  of,  505;  as  a 
discipline,  511,  524;  in  Herbart's  theory, 

635. 
Law,  study  of,  216;  at  Bologna,  315-316. 


Laws,  educational  scheme  ot  Plato's 
137  ff. ;  comparison  of,  to  Republic,  138 

Laws  of  Twelve  Tables,  place  of,  in  Roman 
education,  192,  198. 

Learning,  attitude  of  Church  toward, 
235  ff. ;  of  monasticism,  265,  273 ;  in- 
fluence of  Saracens  on,  332.  See  also 
Renaissance. 

Lecky,  quoted,  230. 

Leipzig,  University  of,  388. 

Lewis,  quoted,  41,  44,  45. 

Liberal  education,  Greek  conception  of, 
52  ff. ;  Renaissance  conception  of,  369; 
realistic  conception  of,  452  f. ;  scientific 
conception  of,  679  f.,  748.  See  Aim. 

Library,  at  Alexandria,  170,  172 ;  in  Rome 
203 ;  in  provinces,  204 ;  in  the  monas- 
tery, 264,  265,  272;  in  Western  cali- 
phates of  the  Saracens,  332. 

Lilly,  382 ;  grammar  of,  393. 

Linacre,  382,  388. 

Lionardo  D'Arezzo,  quoted,  366. 

Literature,  in  Athens,  105;  in  Rome,  199, 
213;  preservation  of,  in  monasteries, 
262  ff. ;  of  the  wandering  scholar,  336; 
beginnings  of  modern,  341 ;  classical 
during  Renaissance,  354;  self-  malysis 
in,  359;  formal  study  of,  370;  nature 
in,  574;  core  of  Herbart's  correlation, 
636;  for  children,  579,  583.  See  also 
Music. 

Literator,  school  of,   194,  195,  197. 

Locke,  influence  of  Rabelais  upon,  446; 
educational  theory  of,  512  f.,  626;  com- 
pared to  Rousseau,  516,  522 ;  to  Come- 
nius,  518,  520;  to  Montaigne,  520;  to 
Bacon,  520;  attack  of,  upon  English 
education,  523;  rationalism  of,  539;  in- 
fluence of,  576. 

Loyola,  421. 

Ludus,  in  Rome,  193 ;  private  in  character, 
196. 

Luther,  Martin,  influence  of,  405,  408, 409 ; 
work  of,  410-414,  417. 

Lyceum,  164  f. 

Lycon,  165. 

Lycurgus,  70,  71, 75. 

Macaulay,  quoted,  429. 
McGiflert,  quoted,  243. 
Madison,  exponent  of  sociological  tend- 
ency, 714. 
Mahaffy,  quoted,  100. 


Index 


767 


Mann,  influence  of  Pestalozzi  upon,  669; 
work  of,  702,  735  f. 

Mantua,  school  of,  376. 

Manual  labor.     See  Industrial  Education. 

Marburg,  University  of,  417. 

Martin,  quoted,  29,  40. 

Martyr,  Justin,  238. 

Mathematics,  in  Locke's  theory,  519;  in 
English  public  school,  527;  in  Pesta- 
lozzi's  scheme,  618.  See  also  Science. 

Mayo,  work  of,  668. 

Meaning  of  education.  See  Aim  in  edu- 
cation. 

Means  of  education.  See  Schools  and 
Subject-matter. 

Medicine,  teaching  of,  at  Salerno,  315. 

Melanchthon,  391  f.,  409,  414  f.,  433. 

Mencius,  teachings  of,  19,  24. 

Merchant  Taylors'  School,  338 ;  Mulcaster 
at,  465. 

Method  of  education,  in  primitive  society, 
10  f. ;  in  China,  39  f. ;  in  Greece,  73, 
77,  90,  98  f.,  117 ;  influence  of  Socrates 
upon,  127;  Plato,  132;  Aristotle,  153; 
in  Rome,  189  f. ;  as  set  forth  by  Quin- 
tilian,  207 ;  in  early  Christian  Church, 
224;  in  monastic  schools,  262;  in 
mysticism,  282  f. ;  in  scholasticism, 
300;  in  humanism,  374,  381,  383;  in 
Reformation  schools,  408;  in  Jesuits' 
schools,  426;  in  Port  Royal  schools, 
431  f.;  in  schools  of  Christian  Breth- 
ren, 438  f. ;  according  to  sense-realists, 
463  f. ;  according  to  Montaigne,  460; 
Bacon,  468  f.,  474 ;  Ratke,  479;  Come- 
nius,  481,  487,  490;  Locke,  521;  in 
English  public  schools,  525 ;  according 
to  Rousseau,  553,  571,  573;  Basedow, 
S79  fc;  psychological  conception  of, 
587  ff. ;  according  to  Pestalozzi,  604, 
6lS.  6I7.  619;  influence  of  Pestalozzi 
on,  614 ;  according  to  Herbart,  636  f. ; 
Froebel,  653  f. ;  Spencer,  689;  scientific 
conception  of,  702  f. ;  recent  tendencies 
in.  749.  757- 

Middle  Ages,  221  ff. 

Milton,  representative  of  humanistic  real- 
ism, 448. 

Mohammedans,  learning  of,  332. 

Monasteries,  study  in,  254-259;  schools  in, 
250-262 ;  relation  of,  to  literature,  262  ff. ; 
chronicles  ot  267;  attitude  of,  toward 


classical  learning,  272,  273 ;  dissolution 
of,  in  England,  395. 

Monasticism,  influence  of  Plato  upon,  146; 
scope  of,  243  ff. ;  ideal  of,  245  f. ;  origin 
of,  245 ;  causes  for  growth  of,  246  f. ; 
rules  of,  251  f. ;  relation  of,  to  educa- 
tion, 253,  265,  273,  352;  literary  heritage 
of,  267;  relation  of,  to  mysticism,  279. 

Monastic  schools,  235 ;  growth  of,  260 ; 
work  of,  262 ;  admission  of  externs  to, 
276 ;  decline  of,  334,  338 ;  compared  to 
English  public  schools,  395;  suppres- 
sion of,  in  England,  395 ;  condemnation 
of,  by  Luther,  410. 

Monitorial  system,  in  Germany,  439.  See 
also  Lancaster. 

Monks,  learning  of,  256 ;  work  of,  262 ;  as 
literary  producers,  265 ;  advance  of, 
under  Charlemagne,  276;  friar  orders 
of,  330  f. ;  as  teachers,  326,  330,  338. 

Montaigne,  influence  of  Rabelais  upon, 
446;  representative  of  social  realism, 
452 ;  classification  of,  455  f. ;  compared 
to  Locke,  520 ;  compared  to  rationalists, 
546 ;  to  Rousseau,  546. 

Montalembert,  quoted,  250,  263. 

Moral  training,  in  China,  17,  22 ;  in  Greece, 
77,  97  f.,  106  f.,  155;  in  early  Christian 
Church,  230  f. ;  in  monastic  orders, 
248  ff.,  352;  in  Renaissance,  367  f . ; 
according  to  Montaigne,  454  f. ;  Locke, 
514;  Rousseau,  559;  Herbart,  629; 
Spencer,  689.  See  also  Aim  in  educa- 
tion. 

More,  409. 

Morf,  quoted,  620. 

Morley,  quoted,  544,  548. 

Mulcaster,  sense-realist,  465  f. 

Museum,  at  Alexandria,  170. 

Music,  scope  of,  in  Greek  education,  90  f., 
92 ;  in  Plato's  theory,  136 ;  in  Aristotle's, 

155  f- 

Mysticism,  as  type  of  education,  279  ff. ; 
relation  of,  to  monasticism,  279;  to 
philosophy,  280 ;  origin  of,  281 ;  psycho- 
logical method  of,  282  f. 

Naples,  University  of,  315. 
Nations,  in  universities,  319,  321. 
Natural  consequences,  moral  training  by 

559,  561,  689. 
Naturalism,  of  Locke,  522;  of  Rousseau, 

532,  547 ;  relation  of,  to  formalism,  533, 


;68 


Index 


537 ;  religion  of,  545 ;  influence  of,  upon 
schools,  575  ff. ;  compared  to  psycho- 
logical movement,  588;  of  Pestalozzi, 
601,  603. 

Nature,  education  according  to,  479,  481, 
487 ;  Mulcaster's  view  of,  467 ;  Locke's, 
512;  Rousseau's,  547,  553,  572;  Base- 
dow's,  581 ;  psychological  view  of,  590 ; 
Kant's  view  of,  595 ;  Pestalozzi's,  603 ; 
Huxley's,  692.  See  Development. 

Nature  study.     See  Science. 

Neef,  work  of,  668. 

Negative  education,  557,  561. 

Neoplatonism,  origin  of,  171 ;  influence  of, 
upon  mysticism,  282;  suppression  of, 
in  Eastern  Church,  332 ;  in  Renaissance, 

355- 

Neuhof,  school  at,  602. 

Newman,  quoted,  589. 

Newton,  at  Cambridge,  502,  692. 

Nominalism,  of  the  schoolmen,  296-297, 
303;  of  William  of  Occam,  306;  the 
definition  of  scholasticism  according 
to,  312;  influence  of  Porphyry's  Isa- 
goge  upon,  323. 

Nuremberg,  city  ordinance  of,  regulating 
wandering  students,  336. 

Object  lessons,  origin  of,  607;  core  of 
Pestalozzi's  method,  617,  662. 

Occupations,  in  Froebel's  theory,  652,  666. 

Oratorians,  in  France,  430. 

Oratory,  estimate  of,  in  Greece,  163;  in 
Rome,  201,  202,  203,  207,  217;  in  hu- 
manistic education,  374. 

Organization,  Roman  genius  for,  177;  of 
mediaeval  universities,  317,  325 ;  of  Ger- 
man secondary  schools,  419;  of  schools 
according  to  Comenius,  492 ;  of  schools 
in  America,  737  f. 

Oriental  education.     See  Chinese. 

Origen,  work  of,  233,  239. 

Oswego  movement,  669. 

Oxford,  University  of,  316,  319,  693. 

Owen,  work  of,  726. 

Pachomius,  work  of,  as  an  anchorite,  247 ; 
rules  of,  256. 

Palaemon,  as  pedagogue,  198. 

Pantsenus,  as  teacher,  233. 

Paris,  University  of,  313,  316,  318 ;  migra- 
tion from,  319;  nations  in,  320;  origin 
of  faculties  in,  320 ;  Aristotle's  writings 


at,  324;    political    influence    of,  326, 
center  of  new  learning,  387. 
Paul,  St.,  school  of,  393,  419 ;  Mulcaster  a.\ 

46S- 

Paulinus,  teacher,  215. 

Peabody,  Elizabeth,  673. 

Pennsylvania,  University  of,  study  of  sci- 
ence in,  695. 

Pericles,  quoted,  58 ;  Age  of,  102. 

Persia,  48. 

Personality.    See  Individual. 

Pestalozzi,  relation  of,  to  Ratke,  480 ;  psy- 
chology of,  511,  591;  Rousseau's  influ- 
ence upon,  572,  597,  601,  605,  621; 
compared  to  Basedow,  582,  621 ;  con- 
ception of  education  of,  593,  610,  612, 
617 ;  significance  of  work  of,  597,  621, 
667  f.,  724,  748;  at  Neuhof,  602;  at 
Stanz,  606;  at  Burgdorf,  607;  at  Yver- 
dun,  608 ;  sociological  aspect  of  work 
of,  707  f. ;  philanthropic  aspect  of  work 
of,  722 ;  relation  of,  to  Herbart,  622  f., 
626;  to  Froebel,  639  f. ;  view  of,  con- 
cerning instruction,  632. 

Peter  the  Lombard,  influence  of,  on  uni- 
versities, 323. 

Peter  the  Venerable,  quoted,  273. 

Petrarch,  327,  354,  353  f.,  375,  386. 

Philanthropic  educational  movements, 
722  ff. 

Philaathropinum,  work  of,  580  f. 

Philo,  work  of,  171 ;  allegorical  method  of, 
224 ;  contribution  of,  to  mysticism,  281. 

Philosophy,  transition  in  Athens  from  old 
to  new,  108 ;  study  of,  declines  at  Rome, 
216 ;  relation  of,  to  Christianity,  238, 239 ; 
Tertullian's  opinion  of,  241 ;  Grecian 
among  Arabs,  332 ;  allied  with  psyche* 
logical  movement,  595. 

Phrenology,  596,  680. 

Physical  education,  in  Greece,  76,  81,  88  f., 
96,  116,  117,  154;  in  Rome,  190  f. ;  in 
Renaissance,  368;  in  humanism,  371, 
389 ;  in  theory  of  Mulcaster,  466  f. ;  of 
Lock*-,  514;  of  Rousseau,  558  f. 

Pietistic  movement,  498,533. 

Plato,  theory  of,  93,  95,  130  f. ;  dialectic  of, 
127 ;  compared  with  Socrates,  130,  133, 
133  J  Republic  of,  134  f ;  Laws  of,  137  f. ; 
practical  influence  of,  144  f. ;  compared 
to  Aristotle,  147,  152  ff. ;  to  Isocrates, 
164;  in  Academy,  164;  translation  of 
works  of,  269;  relation  of,  to  mysticism, 


Index 


769 


981 ;  to  scholasticism,  296;  place  of,  in 
Renaissance,  351,  355  f.,  366. 

Play,  value  of,  in  education,  661 ;  in  kin- 
dergarten, 666.  See  also  Games. 

Pliny  the  Younger,  quoted,  204. 

Plotinus,  influence  of,  upon  mysticism, 
282. 

Plutarch,  educational  importance  of  Lives 
of,  188. 

Politics,  educational  scheme  of  Aristotle's, 
154  ff. 

Porphyry,  writings  of,  used  as  texts  in 
universities,  323. 

Port  Royalists,  schools  of,  430. 

Positive  education,  558,  566. 

Practical  element  in  education,  in  primi- 
tive society,  4,  6;  in  China,  18,  43;  in 
Plato's  scheme,  141  f. ;  in  Aristotle's, 
152, 155,  157 ;  in  Rome,  176  f.,  185, 188, 
190,  193,  200  f.;  in  Renaissance,  368; 
in  realism,  452  f. ;  according  to  Bacon, 
468  f. ;  to  Rousseau,  562;  in  philan- 
thropinum,  582;  in  scientific  tendency, 
679  f.,  687;  in  sociological,  715. 

Presentation  in  Herbart's  theory,  629  f. 

Princeton,  study  of  science  at,  694,  695. 

Priest,  function  of,  in  primitive  education, 
8  f. ;  in  Greek,  53.  See  also  Monks. 

Primitive  education,  significance  of,  i; 
animism  in,  2  f. ;  aim  of,  6;  means  of, 
6  f. ;  content  of,  9 ;  method  of,  10 ;  tran- 
sition from,  13  f. 

Priscian,  Latin  grammar  of,  200,  214, 323. 

Problem,  of  education,  758  f. 

Process,  education  as  a,  569,  573.  See  also 
Development. 

Protagoras,  educational  theory  of,  123. 
Prussia,  school  system  of,  435. 

Psychological  tendency  in  education,  influ- 
ence of  Rousseau  upon,  573 ;  character- 
istics of,  587;  philosophical  aspect  of, 
594 ;  Pestalozzi  as  an  exponent  of,  597 ; 
Herbart,  622 ;  Froebel,  639 ;  effect  of, 
upon  schools,  667,  749. 
Psychology,  of  Aristotle,  507,  590,  626; 
relation  of,  to  discipline,  507 ;  of  Locke, 
513;  development  of  the  science  of, 
591 ;  of  Herbart,  625  f. ;  as  basis  of 
sociology,  716  f. 

Public  school,  in    England,  393,   524  f. ; 
societies,  727 ;  development  of,  see  Slate. 
Puritanism,  533. 
Pythagoreans,  educational  theory  of,  123. 

3D 


Quintilian,  opinions  of,  concerning  litera- 
ture, 199;  Roman  schools,  200,  203, 
207,  268 ;  work  of,  as  teacher,  208. 

Rabanus,  Maurus,  work  at  Fulda,  278; 
influence  of,  on  the  establishment  of 
scholasticism,  293. 

Rabelais,  religious  position  of,  409 ;  repre- 
sentative of  humanistic  realism,  446. 

Rationalism,  of  Locke,  539;  of  Voltaire, 
540,  545;  a  type  of  formalism,  537; 
compared  to  realism,  546. 

Ratke,  work  of,  478  f.,  497;  influence  <3f5 
on  Comenius,  481. 

Realism,  of  the  schoolmen,  296  f.,  302; 
attack  upon,  by  William  of  Occam,  306 ; 
scholasticism  according  to,  312 ;  influ- 
ence of  Isagoge  upon,  323;  relation  of, 
to  Renaissance,  442  f. ;  to  humanism, 
443  f. ;  representatives  of,  445  f. ;  effect 
of,  on  schools,  451 , 496  f. ;  social,  451  ff. ; 
sense,  461  ff. ;  first  exposition  of,  497 ; 
Locke's  view  of,  520. 

Recapitulation,  aim  in  Chinese  education, 

49- 

Recitation,  formal  steps  of,  636  f. 

Reformation,  distinguished  from  Renais- 
sance, 401,  409,  416;  counter,  403; 
influence  of,  on  education,  403  ff. ;  edu- 
cators of,  408  ff. ;  schools  of,  416. 

Relationships,  basis  of  Chinese  philosophy, 
19. 

Religion,  influence  of,  upon  education  in 
Greece,  53  f. ;  in  Rome,  178 ;  Middle 
Ages,  230 ;  Renaissance  conception  of, 
402.  See  also  Church. 

Renaissance,  under  Julian,  214;  of  thir- 
teenth century,  328  f. ;  of  fifteenth,  351  f. ; 
in  Italy,  357;  in  North  Europe,  361; 
fusion  of,  with  Reformation,  362,  385, 
401,  408,  416;  educational  significance 
of,  364;  educators  of,  375.  See  also 
Humanism. 

Renan,  quoted,  305. 

Rensselaer,  Polytechnic  Institute,  science 
study  in,  696 

Republic,  educational  scheme  of  Plato's, 
134  ff. ;  compared  to  Laws,  138 ;  prac- 
tical defects  of  scheme  of,  142  f. 

Results  of  education,  in  China,  41  f. ;  in 
Greece,  icof.,  117;  in  scholasticism, 
324;  in  universities,  324;  in  Reforma- 
tion, 405 ;  in  Jesuit  schools,  429. 


770 


Index 


Rhetoricians,  expulsion  of,  from  Rome,  192 ; 
schools  of,  in  Rome,  196 ;  compared  to 
Sophists,  201 ;  schools  of,  in  provinces, 
204,  212;  ideals  of,  in  Rome,  216. 

Roman  education,  Greek  influence  upon, 
172;  character  of,  176;  periods  of, 
191  f. ;  ideals  of,  180,  183 ;  institutions 
of,  185,  197,  200;  writers  on,  206 f.; 
decadence  of,  208  ff.,  limitations  of,  213. 

Romans,  practical  genius  of,  176 f.;  con- 
tributions of,  to  civilization,  179;  to 
education,  180;  rights  and  duties  of, 
180  f. ;  Greek  influence  upon,  191, 194  f., 
197,  240. 

Roscellinus,  303. 

Rosenkranz,  work  of,  596;  influence  of 
Hegel  on,  596;  social  aspect  of  philoso- 
phy of,  710. 

Rousseau,  influence  of  Rabelais  upon,  446 ; 
contrasted  with  Locke,  516, 522;  natu- 
ralism of,  543;  compared  to  Voltaire, 
543,  545;  to  Montaigne,  546;  educa- 
tional theory  of,  553  ff.,  626;  biography 
of,  548;  writings  of,  550;  influence  of, 
on  education,  548,  566,  572  f.,  748 ;  rela- 
tion of,  to  Renaissance,  565  ff. ;  influence 
of,  upon  later  theorists,  572,  601,  603, 
621 ;  utilitarianism  of,  687. 

Salzmann,  influence  of  Rousseau  upon, 
577;  work  of,  579,  583. 

Saracens,  preservation  of  Aristotle's  works 
by,  160;  influence  of  the  learning  of, 
332  f. 

Saxony,  plan  for  schools,  433. 

Schlosser,  quoted,  580,  581. 

Scholarch,  in  philosophical  schools,  165  f. 

Scholars,  wandering,  335  f. ;  organization 
of,  336 ;  type  of  literature  belonging  to, 
340 ;  carriers  of  new  learning,  387. 

Scholasticism,  influence  of  Aristotle  on, 
159,  296, 298, 305,  307 ;  as  an  intellectual 
discipline,  292  ff. ;  purpose  of,  292 ; 
content  of,  295 ;  form  of,  298 ;  method 
of,  300;  growth  of,  302 f.;  exponents 
of,  305  f. ;  criticism  of,  307  f. ;  limita- 
tions of,  352 ;  of  sixteenth  century,  405 ; 
of  German  universities,  418. 

Schoolmen,  list  of,  305;  learning  of,  307; 
limitations  of,  309. 

Schools,  in  China,  32  f. ;  in  Greece,  74,  81, 
83,  164;  rhetorical,  162,  165  f.,  201  f.; 
philosophical,  164  f.,  171 ;  in  Rome,  186, 


193  ff.,  274;  catechumenal,232;  catechet 
ical,  233;  episcopal,  234;  monastic,  235, 
255 ;  under  Charlemagne,  275 ;  univer- 
sity, 313  ff. ;  number  of,  in  thirteenth 
century,  328;  of  the  Saracens,  332; 
number  of,  in  later  Middle  Ages,  337  f. ; 
chantry,  338  ;  guild,  339;  burgher,  338; 
humanistic,  376,  385  f.,  388,  418;  court, 
388  f. ;  of  Brethren  of  Common  Life, 
390;  grammar,  194  f.,  390,  395,  498; 
English  public,  393,  523;  Jesuit,  396, 
420  ff.;  parish,  410;  of  Reformation, 
416;  establishment  of  elementary, 
433  ff. ;  of  Basedow,  580 ;  of  Pesta- 
lozzi,  602;  infant,  639,  641,  666,  726  f. ; 
influence  of  Pestalozzi  upon,  667  f. ; 
Herbart,  670;  Froebel,  671  f. ;  monito- 
rial, 724  f. 

Science,  natural,  place  in  education,  664  f., 
678,  687 ;  spread  of  study  of,  692  ff. ; 
influence  of  methods  of,  702  f. 

Scientific  tendency  in  education,  influence 
of  Rousseau  upon,  573;  relation  of,  to 
other  movements,  677  f,  684,  687,  710; 
characteristics  of,  677  f. ;  conflict  of, 
with  disciplinary,  679  f.,  688;  represen- 
tatives of,  684  ff. ;  spread  of,  692  ff. ; 
influence  of  Pestalozzi  upon,  700; 
method  of,  702;  social  aspect  of,  710  f. ; 
Spencer  as  representative  of,  711. 

Scotland,  schools  of,  436. 

Scotus,  Duns,  a  schoolman,  305;  a  Fran- 
ciscan, 330. 

Scotus,  Joannes,  work  of,  in  palace  school, 
278;  influence  of,  on  mysticism,  282; 
on  scholasticism,  293  ;  upon  his  age,  302. 

Self-activity,  a  condition  of  development, 
618 ;  in  Froebel's  theory,  640,  641,  644, 
653  f.  See  also  Interest. 

Sense,  realism,  461  ff. ;  training,  567,  571, 
623  f.;  perception  of  Herbart,  625  f. 
See  also  Pestalozzi. 

Social  element  in  education,  primitive, 
6  f. ;  Chinese,  18  f.,  41 ;  Greek,  66,  109 ; 
Roman,  202;  monastic,  250;  Renais- 
sance, 352,  365;  humanistic,  371,  378, 
389,  482;  according  to  Rousseau,  564, 
573;  Herbart,  630;  Spencer,  686,  in 
eclectic  tendency,  754.  See  also  Socio- 
logical tendency. 

Societies,  for  promoting  education  in  En£ 
land,  435 ;  in  America,  727  f. 

Society  of  Jesus.    See  Jesuits. 


Index 


771 


Sociological  tendency  in  education,  influ- 
ence of  Rousseau  upon,  573;  char- 
acteristics of,  706  ff. ;  represented 
by  Pestalozzi,  707  f. ;  Herbart,  708  f. ; 
Froebel,  709  f. ;  compared  to  scien- 
tific, 710;  represented  by  Spencer, 
711;  publicists  as  exponents  of, 
711  ff. ;  influence  of,  in  development 
of  free  schools,  711  ff. ;  relation  to  so- 
ciology, 716  ff. ;  manifested  in  public 
schools,  729  ff. ;  in  philanthropic  insti- 
tutions, 722  ff. ;  economic  aspect  of, 
739  ff. ;  effect  of,  upon  curriculum,  749. 

Socrates,  relation  of,  to  Sophists  and  old 
Greek  educators,  122,  163;  theory  of, 
123 ff.;  method  of,  125 f.;  aim  of,  126; 
influence  of,  127  f. 

Solon,  103. 

Sophists,  rise  of,  no;  teaching  of,  112  f. ; 
schools  of,  162 ;  in  philosophical  schools, 
166;  name  of,  applied  to  Greek  pro- 
fessors, 168;  compared  to  rhetoricians 
at  Rome,  201 ;  as  wandering  lecturers 
in  Rome,  215  f. 

Spartan  education,  ideals  of,  69;  influence 
of  environment  on,  70;  aim  of,  72;  or- 
ganization of,  73;  content  of,  75  ff. ; 
Aristotle's  criticism  of,  155. 

Spencer,  quoted,  13,  121 ;  interpreter  of 
Rousseau,  559,  689;  representative  of 
scientific  tendency,  679,  684;  of  socio- 
logical tendency,  711 ;  educational 
theory  of,  685  f. ;  criticisms  of,  687 ;  in- 
fluence of  Pestalozzi  upon,  689 ;  Bacon, 
689;  Huxley,  689. 

Spinoza,  psychology  of,  591. 

State  relation  to  education,  in  China,  32  f. ; 
in  Greece,  67  f.,  81,  168 ;  in  Rome,  198, 
204  f. ;  in  America,  395, 437, 712  f.,  734  f. ; 
inGermany,407,7iif.,73o;  in  England, 
435, 733 f.;  in  Scotland, 436;  in  Holland, 
436;  in  France,  731  f. ;  development  of 
control  in,  408,  413,  417  f.,  433  f.,  722  ff. 

Stoics,  165,  224  f. 

Studium  generate,  in  mediaeval  university, 
317;  division  of,  into  nations,  319. 

Sturm,  work  of,  391,  392,  415,  483;  influ- 
ence of,  upon  Jesuits,  397;  religious 
position  of,  409. 

Subject-matter,  of  education,  in  primitive 
life,  9;  in  China,  26  f. ;  in  Greece,  88  f., 
Xi$ ;  influence  of  Socrates  upon,  127; 
In  Plato's  scheme,  135  ff. ;  influence  of 


Plato  upon,  144;  in  Aristotle's  scheme, 
157 ;  in  University  of  Athens,  167 ;  in 
philosophical  schools,  168;  in  univer- 
sity at  Alexandria,  170  f. ;  in  Rome, 
187  f.,  192,  194  ff. ;  in  catechumenal 
schools,  232;  in  catechetical  schools, 
233 ;  in  monasteries,  259,  261 ;  repre- 
sented by  the  Seven  Liberal  Arts,  268  f. ; 
outlined  by  Charlemagne,  276;  in 
monastery  at  Tours,  278;  in  chivalry, 
289  f. ;  in  scholasticism,  295  f . ;  in  me- 
diaeval universities,  320,  323;  influence 
of  Saracens  ••pon,  333;  in  burgher 
schools,  338;  as  outlined  in  Dante's 
Divine  Comedy,  344  f. ;  of  Renaissance, 
351,  366,  368;  of  humanists,  371  f., 
381  f. ;  in  Vittorino  da  Feltre's  school, 
377 ;  in  gymnasien,  391 ;  in  English 
public  school,  394,  525 ;  in  American 
grammar  school,  396;  in  Jesuit  schools, 
397,425;  in  Reformation  schools,  406  f., 
412  f.;  in  Port  Royal  schools,  432;  in 
schools  of  Christian  Brethren,  438;  in 
realism,  444;  according  to  Milton,  450; 
influence  of  Bacon  on,  472;  Comenius, 
483;  in  real  schools,  498 ;  in  academies, 
499;  disciplinary  conception  of,  511; 
according  to  Locke,  519;  Rousseau, 
563,573;  Basedow,  579,  581;  Pestalozzi, 
619  f. ;  Herbart,  624,  635  f.,  708;  in 
kindergarten,  666;  scientific  view  of, 
680  f.;  according  to  Spencer,  685  f. ; 
science  as,  692  ff. ;  sociological  view  of, 
710, 715, 740  f.,  749 ;  eclectic  view  of,  756. 

Suetonius,  quoted,  194,  195,  205. 

Sulla,  brought  library  to  Rome,  203. 

Sylvius,  .<Eneas,  quoted,  367 ;  work  of,  375. 

Symbolism,  in  mysticism,  284;  of  Froebel, 
646,  652,  658. 

Symmachus,  made  prefect,  215. 

Tacitus,  quoted,  207,  208,  229. 

Tarver,  quoted,  511. 

Teacher,  in  primitive  society,  8;  in  China, 
33;  in  Greece,  78,  91,  no,  114,  162;  in 
Rome,  186  f.,  194  f.,  205  f. ;  salaries  of, 
in  Rome,  205  f. ;  privileges  and  exemp- 
tions of,  in  Rome,  205,  209;  priests  as, 
8,  326,  338  f. ;  Luther's  praise  of,  414; 
training  of  Jesuit,  424 ;  Christian  Breth- 
ren, 439;  training  of,  during  Reforma- 
tion period,  439;  Mulcaster's  work  for 
training  of,  467;  Francke's  seminary 


772 


Index 


for,  498 ;  in  Herbart's  scheme,  627  f. ; 
influence  of  Pestalozzi  on  training  of, 
668  ;  present  status  of,  749. 

Tertullian,  attitude  of,  toward  Greek  learn- 
ing, 241  f. 

Text-books,  of  Comenius,  489 ;  of  Basedow, 
579 ;  of  Pestalozzi,  608 ;  Pestalozzi's  in- 
fluence upon,  620;  in  science,  702. 

Theodosius,  established  government  con- 
trol of  schools,  206. 

Theophrastus,  165. 

Thomasius,  at  Halle,  501. 

Tours,  monastery  at,  277 ;  library  at,  277. 

Troubadours,  340, 

Trouveres,  340. 

Tyndale,  at  Cambridge,  418. 

United  States,  realism  in,  500;  kinder- 
garten in,  673 ;  influence  of  Pestalozzi 
in,  669 ;  of  Herbart,  671 ;  science  in, 
693  f.,  699,  701;  sociological  tendency 
in,  712  f.;  influence  of  Fellenberg  in, 
723 ;  of  Lancaster,  725  f. ;  infant  schools 
in,  727;  free  schools  in,  729  ff.,  734  f. ; 
industrial  education  in,  743  f. 

Unity,  according  to  Froebel,  646  f.,  660. 

Universal  education,  advocated  by  Eras- 
mus, 381;  by  Saxony  plan,  434;  by 
Comenius,  492  f.;  by  Pestalozzi,  609; 
by  Spencer,  688.  See  also  State. 

University,  of  Athens,  167  f. ;  at  Alex- 
andria, 169 ;  at  Rome,  204  f. ;  mediaeval, 
300,  313  ff. ;  wandering  scholars  of,  334 ; 
influence  of  Renaissance  upon,  386; 
growth  of,  during  Reformation,  417  f. ; 
in  Saxony  plan,  433;  realism  in,  501; 
curriculum  of  English,  527 ;  pedagogi- 
cal seminaries  in,  670 ;  science  study  in, 
692 ;  state,  738. 

Utilitarianism.    See  Practical. 

Valentinian,  established  government  con- 
trol of  schools,  206. 

Valla,  Lorenzo,  387. 

Varro,  writings  of,  199 ;  quoted,  268 ;  in- 
fluence of,  upon  Capella,  269. 

Vergerius,  Paulus,  quoted,  365,  366. 

Vespasian,  203,  205. 

Vienna,  University  of,  324 

Vincent,  quoted,  719. 

Vincent  of  Bauvais,  305. 

Virgil,  popularity  of,  217 ;  writings  of,  con- 
demned by  monasteries,  274;  in  Divine 


Comedy,  345 ;  knowledge  of,  fn  mediaeval 

times,  358. 

Virginia,  University  of,  scientific  tendency 
in,  696. 

Virtue,  Chinese  conception  of,  44;  Homeric 
conception  of,  64,  69;  Athenian,  in  old 
Greek,  101;  in  new,  as  formulated  by 
educational  theorists,  120;  as  denned 
by  Plato,  131,  132;  in  Plato's  Republic, 
135 ;  as  denned  by  Aristotle,  148 ; 
Roman  conception  of,  183-184 ;  monas- 
tic conception  of,  249;  in  Locke's 
theory,  515;  in  Herbart's,  629  f. 

Vittorino  da  Feltre,  work  of,  376. 

Volition,  in  Herbart's  theory,  630  f. ;  in 
Froebel's,  640, 656, 658 ;  in  Ward's,  717. 

Voltaire,  540  f. 

Ward,  sociological  theory  of,  716. 

Washington,  exponent  of  sociological  tend- 
ency, 712  f. 

Wessel,  377. 

Wilderspin,  work  of,  727  f. 

Wilkins,  quoted,  118. 

Willert,  quoted,  543. 

William  of  Champeaux,  realism  of,  303; 
at  University  of  Paris,  313. 

William  of  Occam,  work  of,  306. 

Williams,  quoted,  42. 

Wimpheling,  belief  of,  363;  work  of,  377 
f. ;  education  of,  390 ;  religious  position 
of,  409. 

Wittenberg,  University  of,  388 ;  Melanch- 
thon's  work  in,  415;  Protestant  influ- 
ence of,  417. 

Woman,  in  Greece,  60,  72,  79;  in  Plato's 
Republic,  140;  in  Aristotle's  Politics, 
156;  in  Rome,  186,  187;  in  Erasmus's 
scheme,  381;  in  Saxony  plan,  434;  in 
Rousseau's  scheme,  565.  See  also  State. 

Wiirtemberg,  school  system  of,  434. 

Wycliffe,  327. 

Xenophon,  educational  theory  of,  123. 

Yale,  study  of  science  at,  693,  695,  696. 
Youmans,  quoted,  681. 
Yverdun,  Pestalozzi  at,  608;    Froebel  at; 
643 ;  influence  of  school  at,  667, 668, 723 

Zeller,  quoted,  122. 

Ziller,  work  of,  635,  637,  670. 

Zwingli,  work  of,  410. 


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